Futurumshop

Bicycle/mountainbiking accessories shop

Almost a dream come true, leaving school at 19 and immediately starting to turn your hobby into a company. This way Harm van de Meulen started Futurumshop in 1999. He is and was a cycling fanatic and thanks to Futurumshop this also became his profession. 18 years later Futurumshop grew into a company employing 65 people with a revenue of €30 million per year. The Futurumshop is a web shop, but also has shops in Apeldoorn, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Emmerik (Germany).

Turning your hobby into a business.

At the Futurumshop you can buy numerous bicycle parts and accessories through the web shop. Besides cycling and mountain biking they also sell running shoes and other accessories and they give clinics to teach you how to perform your own bike maintenance. Still Futurumshop is mostly specialized in sport clothing. The Futurumshop developed its own all-weather clothing line, with a 4 season jacket. This all-weather line can be worn 9 months per year.

80% of all revenue is made in the Netherlands, the other 20% is mostly made in Germany and Belgium. The Futurumshop’s export strategy is focused on expanding from ‘spots’. Just starting in a new country is not something you just do, because it will take a lot of marketing budget to build something from nothing.

Looking back at the past years Van der Meulen recalls the activities in France at the start of this century to be the best export performance: “Soon after our start in 2003 we started our export to France, we took a lot of advantage of the price differences between both countries. A GPS system, for example, then cost €2.000,- in the Netherlands while they only cost €1.200,- in France. These price differences were the basis of our growth.”

Looking at the future the Futurumshop wishes to expand more in the Netherlands and Belgium and put more focus to English countries such as the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries.