Giant Liverpool
t: 0151 707 6116
w: www.giant-liverpool.co.uk
The Cycle To Work Scheme goes from strength to strength.
Within the Government's Green Transport Plan there's a tax exemption which allows employers to provide cycles & safety equipment to employees as a tax free benefit. We all get used to using our hard earned wages (what's left after Income Tax & National Insurance) to give us the things we desire. Even then there's Vat waiting to further increase the cost. Imagine there was a way of avoiding all 3 taxes - the saving could be between 40 - 50%.
In the case of bicycles that is happening every day at Giant Liverpool.
With many of us wanting to get fitter after Christmas there has never been a better time to call in & check out this unique scheme. Everyone looks for the catch but there isn't one. It costs nothing to find out. We are authorised suppliers to the major schemes & we will gladly help you to set this up for your company if it's right for your situation. It's great that some of our largest employers in the area support the scheme but it's not just for big businesses. To benefit the employee has to pay tax through the PAYE scheme.
Giant Liverpool looks like a franchised outlet but it's a not-for-profit, Social Enterprise & Workers Co-operative.
100% owned by Liverpool Bicycle Co-operative Limited.
It's a pilot for how we thought people could be supported in their efforts to cycle more.
I still can't believe that Directors of a successful furniture retail business, the world's largest bicycle manufacturer & a Bank Manager could join forces & all invest their own money in the hope that Liverpool was ready for this type of approach.
Giant chose the Elevator Building for a prototype that was the first Giant Bicycle store in Europe. They were so pleased with the result that they have since adapted the design in Bristol & Cambridge with 2 more stores opening shortly in London.
The President of Giant visited from Taiwan & said it was the best bicycle store in the world!
When we recruited we looked for friendly local cyclists not mechanics or sales people. So there's no hard sell. The majority of our staff were unemployed before we opened & job creation is one of our main objectives.
We're delighted to have received praise from our women customers who felt they weren't always catered for elsewhere. Approximately 33% of our customers are female.
Customers have asked us to put on some courses in basic bike maintenance & repair so we'll give this a try soon. We will use our own workshop & keep the numbers small - only 2 or 3 at a time. We have also been asked for shop rides led by our staff & aim to start those in the near future. We have some lovely routes locally but the staff also want to take customers Mountain Biking at Llandegla. Mind you the trail was closed last week after 2 foot of snow fell - so maybe we'll wait a few weeks.