TER November 2022

14 NEWS

Campaign puts small firms on the map

Small Business

Saturday is 10

It’s the unstoppable rise of the e-bike

By OLIVIA THOMAS

SMALL FIRMS from Edinburgh will be put on

the map by the Small Business Saturday

campaign, as it unveils a nationwide roadshow to

support and celebrate the nation’s small but

important businesses.

Marking ten years of the campaign in the UK,

Small Business Saturday’s Tour will arrive in

Edinburgh on 2 November and will go on to visit

independent businesses across the city,

spotlighting local business owners and

community leaders with interviews shared on

social media.

The tour will visit local small businesses, such

as A wee pedal and Rosemary Wild. Local

entrepreneurs from all over the area have been

invited to sign up and get involved.

Supported by BT Skills for Tomorrow, ‘The

Tour’ will set off in Scotland on 31 October, and

go on to visit 23 towns and cities across the UK

during November, as part of the official count

down to Small Business Saturday which takes

place on 3 December.

Virtual workshops and webinars on a range of

business topics will be offered each day, as well as

free one-to-one mentoring and opportunities for

small businesses to tell their stories and network

on Small Business Saturday’s Facebook channel.

A Small Business Happy Hour on Instagram

will also take place each day with giveaways from

local businesses all over the country in a draw

which everyone can enter.

Michelle Ovens CBE, Director of Small

Business Saturday UK said: “We are so excited to

be visiting small businesses in Edinburgh and

across the UK, as we count down to Small

Business Saturday with this tour.

“This year’s campaign is all about shining a

light on the nation’s fantastic small firms and

showing them some major love, at a time when

many are facing a lot of challenges. I would

encourage all small businesses across Edinburgh

to get involved, whether it is in person or online.”

Small Business Saturday is a grassroots,

non-commercial campaign, which celebrates

small business success and encourages

consumers to ‘shop local’ and to support

businesses in their communities. The iconic

campaign is celebrating its tenth year in

the UK this year, with principal supporter

American Express.

Chris Sims, Managing Director Small and

Medium Enterprise at BT, said: “The Tour is a

fantastic initiative to reach out and support

small businesses with the skills they need to

scale up in key areas such as digital marketing

and sustainability. We are delighted to be

supporting it again this year, bringing insight

from both our BT Skills for Tomorrow offering,

as well as our new Digital Marketing Hub.

In these challenging times for businesses we

hope this provides a catalyst for growth in the

lead up to the festive period, which is typically

a very important time of year for these types

of enterprise.”

smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com/the-tour

By David Gardiner Partner

Laid Back Bikes Edinburgh

IN 2019 the e-bike became one of

the most desirable items on two

wheels. It wasn’t always that way. Back

in the early 2000s electric bicycles

were distinctly uncool, being

associated with older, less fit riders

wishing to avoid exercise. At local

repair shops in Edinburgh you would

often see early models in for repair,

and it was easy to conclude they were

more bother than they were worth.

With their limited battery range and

heavyweight hub motors, early

electric bikes simply didn’t fulfil

expectations. They certainly weren’t

items that were sold at the majority of

bike shops, and were often made by

unknown companies.

Now e-bikes are produced by all

the major bike brands and aimed at a

wide range of riders, so much so that

the e-bike sales category has grown

rapidly in comparison with other bike

categories. In the UK, 70,000 e-bikes

were sold in 2018; 14% of the market

and with 32% of ‘potential cyclists’

wishing to try one out.

Wouter Jager, Global Retail Director

at Accell Group NV (owners of Raleigh)

puts it succinctly: “Traffic congestion

and air pollution caused by cars is a

concern in the Netherlands. More and

more people are choosing an

environmentally friendly means of

transport. For a lot of people the

e-bike is the sustainable choice.”

Of course Scotland’s promotion of

active travel is still behind the leading

cycling nations in Europe. Despite this,

people understand that an e-bike is

often faster to do all the short

commutes that a car can do. One

reason for many European countries

adopting e-bikes in greater numbers

is that safe cycling infrastructure

is already there, well used

and maintained.

In the UK, male cyclists are four

times more likely than female cyclists

to own an e-bike, but this also reflects

on bike use in general. The practical

nature of e-biking means there are

now several politicians cycling around

Scotland’s cities and rural areas.

Currently far too few decision makers

ride bikes, so it’s not surprising calls

to promote active travel with

better infrastructure aren’t

properly understood. Thanks to

increased use by ‘ordinary’ people, the

prejudice of using power to assist hill

climbing or ride into a headwind

seems to have gone.

http://www.laid-back-bikes.scot

This article was first published in

The Geographer, and is also

published in full on

theedinbrughreporter.co.uk