Still family-owned and family-run, the company has developed from the humblest of beginnings into the UK’s largest distributor of two-wheel aftermarket products and created an international brand to be reckoned with in all corners of the globe.
Now into its 51st year, the Oxfordshire-based brand packs an impressive punch, boasting a range of around 12,000 motorcycle and bicycle products, each one designed, developed and tested in-house at the firm’s R&D centre, part of their 150,000 sq ft empire in Oxfordshire. In the UK, the company also distributes several thousand product lines from some key global brands. And it all started in 1973 with the humble top box…
“Motorcycling was somewhat different in those days,” begins Oxford founder and Chairman, Alec Hammond, who back in 1973 was a 28-year-old sales manager working in the pharmaceutical industry. “There were massive numbers of folk riding to work and luggage hardly existed.”
Around that time, Alec was introduced to a Nottinghamshire-based innovator who had created a range of high-quality top boxes but had no idea how to get them to market.
“I agreed to show some samples to a few motorcycle dealers whilst travelling in the course of my job,” continues Alec. “The top boxes got a massive thumbs up from several dealers who clamoured to buy them. I became convinced that I could build a business in the motorcycle world, so I left my comfortable, secure job and pushed David to go into full-time production of the boxes.”