Dough - Bicycles

About this episode

<p>How can the bicycle industry recover from sales that plummeted after the pandemic?</p><p>The entrepreneur, Sam White, hosts Dough - the BBC Radio 4 series which looks at the business behind profitable everyday products and where the smart money might take them next.</p><p>In each episode, Sam, and the futurist, Tom Cheesewright, are joined by product manufacturers and industry experts whose inside knowledge gives a new appreciation for the everyday things that we often take for granted.</p><p>Together they look back on a product’s earliest (sometimes ridiculous!) iterations, discuss how a product has evolved and the trends which have driven its profitability.</p><p>In this episode on bicycles Sam and Tom hear from expert guests including:</p><p>- Nikki Hawyes - the chief executive officer of Whyte Bikes - Andy Smallwood - the chief executive officer at Pashley Cycles - Simon Irons - the Data and Insights Director at the Bicycle Association</p><p>They explain how the boom in sales during the Covid-19 pandemic bottomed out, creating huge turmoil from which the industry is still trying to recover.</p><p>They trade opinions on the bicycle's 'game-changing' innovations and come up with some classic suggestions for 'pointless' innovations too, before Tom draws on his expertise as a futurist to imagine what bicycles could be like in the decades to come.</p><p>Dough is produced by Jon Douglas and is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.</p><p>Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in the spring when Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread.</p><p>In the meantime, Dough is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds</p>