Panther Cycles has been part of local cycling scene at Penrith since 1978. It’s also a family business with two brothers, Dave and Andy Richardson full time at the store and their parents taking a keen interest behind the scenes. Dave and Andy also see their staff and customers as extended family, so when it came time to expand into a new premises they wanted to create a new bike shop that reflected their heritage and values.
Panther Cycles is in the heart of Penrith, which is in part a commuter suburb 50km west of Sydney, but to a much larger extent in the mindset of the locals, it’s a stand alone city with a strong sense of community. Panther Cycles has always been closely linked to the local community and in particular the local triathlon, road and MTB clubs and events.
With all of this in mind, when it came time to set up a new store it was always destined to be a unique local bike shop rather than a generic ‘concept store’.
Bicycling Trade visited Panther Cycles not long after the new store had opened and received an enthusiastic guided tour from co-owner Dave Richardson.
“Originally this was an outdoor shop and a pool shop—swimming pools and chemicals and things like that,” Dave explained. “This shop only had two tenants in the last 35 years, so when we got here you can imagine, it had old carpet and was all dingy with 30 years of dust and dirt. We wanted to create more of a modern shop, but still have that bricks and mortar bike shop feel about it.”
The store has allocated prominent signage inside and out for their key brands, with which Dave feels closely aligned.
“We’ve been dealing with Cannondale and Giant for over 20 years and others like Shimano and Echelon Sports, we’ve dealt with for many, many years,” he recalled.
“We’ve been really consistent with our suppliers. But it’s a two way street with those guys. We want to create an environment where we can give opportunities to our suppliers to showcase their lines of bikes, but while still giving it the Panther Cycles feel.”
When walking into the new store, one of the first unusual features that you notice is that the ceiling tiles have been removed, but the metal ceiling grid and lights retained.
“This came about from us actually going and having a look at the new shop fit out for Sony Music in the city, where they’d done a very similar thing,” Dave explained. “The idea is to give it a bit more height, with an industrial look.
“We also pulled out all the carpet. We spent five days with a grinder here, grinding the concrete floors to give a smooth finish. You couldn’t afford to pay to have big shop fitters and things like that in, so doing it ourselves keeps it affordable.”
Although the Richardson family did not start Panther Cycles, they’ve had a very long connection with the store as Dave remembered.
“Both myself and my brother did work experience here when we were kids, when I was in year 10 at school. Gavin, who is still our mechanic, had just left school and he was working as a mechanic there as well, so we’re talking early 1990’s.
After we did work experience as kids, we got employed here. I also worked for two or three years as an agent. I worked for Tri Sports with Michael Dunn and with Nicolas Vida from Barracuda Sports. But for extra cash I was still working at the shop and also I was a wheel builder for Zipp.
“Then the opportunity came up to purchase the shop and my brother and I went into that, so that’s where we are today. I still remember when we started Graeme West (now retired former CEO of Giant) was still working for Repco and when Giant originally started, we were there. We’ve been dealing with Cannondale longer than Cannondale (the Australian subsidiary) has. When Grant and Lynelle Adams (owners of Two Wheel Imports the first Cannondale importers) started up, that’s how far back we’ve basically gone with them.
“Our staff retention too. We’ve got staff who have worked for us for years and years because it is family. It’s a growing industry, but we also have to treat them like family and have a good time.”
Clearly, Panther Cycles was already well established, but any move to new premises is a big step, particularly an increase of this scale.
“Our old shop total space was 150 metres,” Dave said. “This new shop total is 375 metres of floor space. We can carry more categories now and our workshop has increased in size, but the biggest thing for us is actually onsite parking. We’ve got 10 onsite parking spaces where before we were very limited with that.”
The new store is 300 metres further away from the commercial centre of Penrith than the old site. It’s on the same street, but on the opposite side of the road, in a stand alone building on a corner block.
“It was a really big decision to do it,” Dave said. “As an owner I’ve got a lot of responsibilities to my staff. So we had to make sure the move was right.
“When this opportunity came up, we had a five day window from our old lease to our new lease (in which to decide). I had to step away from the old shop to set up the new one. The guys did a fantastic job they ran it very, very well. I stepped back from the shop and spent two months with my dad building it. We didn’t have the luxury or the time to say, ‘We’re going to have a shop fitter out and do it’. We basically had to get it organised.
“We still wanted to make sure that we were Panther Cycles. I believe the Panther Cycles brand in Penrith is very, very valuable. I didn’t want to go down the trail of basically becoming a one brand store.
“I believe when a customer walks into Panther Cycles we’re selling the customer the bike that suits them, not just the one that I’ve got 50 odd on consignment where I’ve got to hit the numbers to make things work. We pride ourselves on, ‘If we don’t have it on the floor it’s not a problem to order it in.’
“People still like to come into a bike shop for a bit of a chat. They want to feel part of the ownership. They can hang out at the side of the bar, they can talk.
“A bike shop is still going to get messy and dirty. It’s not always going to be a crystal clear shop. We’re in Penrith in Western Sydney. Our customers do want to see a high quality of store, but they still need not to be scared to walk in with a bike that’s a bit greasy and dirty.”
By working long hours with his father to do the entire fit out themselves, Dave kept the costs of the move to a minimum.
“It’s given us great security for many years to come now. We’ve now built a platform which I think we can really continue to improve. But we haven’t put ourselves in an economic position where we still can’t stick to our morals as far as what we want to sell and give to the customer. I know that the retail industry is forever changing and evolving but we’ve put ourselves in a financial position where we can adapt with the times, but still stick with our core values of our shop.”
Panther Cycles wanted to retain its own branding and identity in their new store, whilst still giving plenty of exposure to their key bike brands Giant and Cannondale. The window murals are similar to those on buses, so that you can still see in our out, with the degree of opacity depending upon the relative light levels inside and outside the store at any given time.
The Panther Cycles team from left to right: Jordan Davies, Dave Richardson, Brian ‘Big Dog’ Price, Ron Richardson, Gavin Leahy, Andy Richardson.
Panther Cycles have plenty of rare cycling and triathlon bikes and memorabilia on display all through the store, including in the roof area. This is a Trimble monocoque carbon aero road bike circa 1990 with very early Zipp wheels and aero bars.
As you walk into the store, you first walk over a cobble stone entrance way, then through this ‘finish line’ complete with an overhead banner and wall mural.
Dave deliberately took out the ceiling tiles but left the metal grid, both to give height for display of their unique collection of race banners and historic bikes, and to give the store an industrial feel.
Ron Richardson designed and built these bike racks which were moved from the previous store. They can accommodate road and MTB bikes with 26, 27.5 and 29 inch wheel diameters.
Ron did the carpentry work using recycled native Australian hardwood for timber finishes throughout the store. The timber’s warm colours and texture contrast the concrete floor and exposed metal elsewhere in the store. This Cannondale head tube door handle leads to one of the two change rooms.
The wall mural celebrates a Panther’s Cycles ‘age grouper’ customer who completed the Pt Macquarie Ironman in an outstanding time. Panther Cycles has had strong links to the sport of triathlon for over two decades with finish banners from major triathlons around the world decorating the store.
This wall of draws is set into an area out of reach of customers, behind the front counter. It is used to hold regularly sold small items including inner tubes.