Shop Talk: ROTWILD Dealer WatzUp-Bikes
Looking back, what sparked your enthusiasm for biking?
I was about six years old when, together with my father, I made old bikes that we had found in the bulky waste roadworthy again. At first, to ride them myself. As a little boy I loved cycling, because I could easily expand my radius of action with the bike.
When my friends and I saw the first BMX bikes in the movie "E.T. - The Extraterrestrial", it was clear to us: "We want to have one of those too! To be able to afford such a part, I had to save a lot of money. By restoring and selling the bulky waste bikes and saving birthday and Christmas money, I eventually got enough money together and then one day my own BMX bike was on the doorstep. From then on I was fully infected with the BMX virus. Nothing else interested me anymore.
The step from BMX to mountain biking wasn't such a big one then, was it?
That's right. It must have been around 1990 when my friends and I bought our first used mountain bikes and rode them through the woods. I was 15 years old at the time and even then I bought used bikes, restored them and sold them again. So I was able to increase my pocket money great and so also my own mountain bike gradually upgrade with better components. During that time, I acquired my skills as a bike wrench quasi autodidactically: learning by doing without YouTube tutorials.
But you still initially decided to train as a carpenter. How did you end up switching to the bike industry?
That's a long story, but I'm happy to tell the short version here. After my apprenticeship, I worked for a while in the classic carpenter's store and later in store construction. Over time, there were some disagreements between me and my boss in the company, to put it kindly. The end of the story was that I was given a six-month leave of absence with full pay. This gave me the flexibility to think about my future career in peace. Since a friend of mine was already working at the WatzUp store in Duisburg, I knew the store and the bike department. I offered the owner that I would like to help out in the bike workshop for a week on a trial basis. The trial week turned into a temporary job and later into a permanent position.
So where did the motivation to start your own bike store come from?
I've always been very Internet-savvy and, when I was an employee at WatzUp, I had the idea of starting my own online store for bicycle parts. But it didn't come to that, because when one of the two WatzUp shareholders at the time wanted to quit, they offered me to take over his shares. So I became co-owner of WatzUp-Oberhausen in 2003. In 2005 we divided both stores into independent companies. From that point on, I focused the store more and more on mountain biking and established it as a specialty store.
Where does the name of the store actually come from?
There is a very funny story about how this came about. In Duisburg, there was the Watzmann outdoor store since 1993. When the topic of mountain biking became more popular, they set up a small bike department there on the second floor. That was then the WatzUp bike department, a play on words from Watzmann and Upstairs. At that time, it was a very pragmatic solution that regularly brought us curious phone calls.
Curious phone calls?
Yes, we regularly get calls from people who think we are the WhatsApp customer service. It has already happened that a desperate husband told me on the phone long and wide about his affair and that he had accidentally sent messages to his wife, which were not intended for her, but for his lover. Now, please, let's delete those messages very quickly. In such situations you need a lot of patience. It usually takes a little longer to explain plausibly to people on the phone that they are unfortunately at the completely wrong address with their request in a mountain bike store. (laughs).
You're a classic career changer. What does someone who wants to work in your store need to bring with them?
For me, what's on a school or work report is secondary. Much more important to me are the practical and social skills that someone brings to the job. As I know from my own experience, you quickly notice when you're doing a trial job whether the person fits into the team or not. I expect my employees to have a passion for biking anyway. After all, that's what makes our store. The people who work here are so enthusiastic about mountain biking that they enjoy working on the subject from morning to night. Whether as a mechanic in the workshop, as a sales consultant or as a photographer and cameraman for our YouTube videos.
You now have 12 permanent employees and four temporary staff. How do you find good employees?
In fact, it's not that easy. First of all, I try to create a working atmosphere in my store in which I would also like to work myself. I encountered many negative examples during my training and in previous jobs. From autocratic, choleric bosses to bullying, it was all there. So I know exactly what I don't want. Our store is located directly on the Haniel slag heap, the highest elevation here in the Ruhr region. We can go for a spin on our home trails during our lunch break or after work. That's something special that not every store has to offer. Most of the employees actually came to us by word of mouth. Partly as acquaintances of customers, partly from colleagues and also our postings and videos are an authentic advertisement for our store.
Speaking of Youtube. You are very active on social media as WatzUp Bikes. That can be enormously time-consuming. How do you organize the work for that in your team?
The whole online area has a long history with us. When Facebook took off in 2010, I was immediately enthusiastic about the platform, because here I could present my company in real time, unlike the ads I ran in the bike magazines. That fascinated me and piqued my curiosity. I really got into the topics of Facebook and YouTube. At the peak of my career, I was working 80 to 100 hours a month after work and on weekends. Now we organize the area with a freelancer and four other people from the store team. In this team, we coordinate the content every week and distribute the tasks accordingly so that we can regularly provide our channels with interesting content.
Why is communication via Facebook, Instagram and YouTube so important to you?
Because we reach people directly and in real time through these channels, who would never have become aware of us without our postings in the networks. As a store, I can show what we have to offer, which products are new and how we are working on the new bikes in the store. Ideally, I would like to have one or two people who do nothing but document our work all day and generate content for the postings. In fact, I'm currently looking for reinforcement for our social media channels as a temp or later also in a permanent position.
What goals are you pursuing with social media communication?
I am firmly convinced that by giving customers an insight into our company, we create trust. The customer is so much closer to our daily work, gets to know the employees and can get an idea of our store philosophy. I think that's enormously important. Even if the investment in social media work cannot be measured one-to-one in terms of increased sales figures, I know that this type of external presentation is essential for our store concept.
What else is on your personal agenda for this year?
At the beginning of the year, I always make a 10-point list of things I want to do in the coming year. Year after year, the resolution on there is "Experience more adventures". That's what I'm working on right now.
In what way?
By increasingly handing over tasks to people in my team and becoming more flexible in terms of time. I like to be out in nature, that's where the adventure starts for me: Meeting people, experiencing things on my doorstep, having more time for biking. These are things that are important to me and from which I can draw new energy for everyday life.
What are currently the biggest challenges in your daily store routine?
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the procurement of goods has been extremely difficult. Since I am always in very close contact with my suppliers, I get an early sense of what is going on at the manufacturers and try to react accordingly at an early stage.
A permanent challenge is to make our store known through the range of goods.we want to make the shopping experience as interesting as possible for our customers. In a good store, you find things you are looking for and things you discover for yourself. To be able to offer the perfect product mix here, we have to constantly identify trends in the market and add new brands to the range. I find it exciting to help build up small brands as well.
Since 2019 you have ROTWILD E-MTBs in the store. And that, although you were previously one of the biggest skeptics of e-mountain bikes. You have to explain that.
It is true that I had long resisted offering E-MTBs in my store. When the topic came up, I was afraid that the e-bikes now have people chasing around in the forest on the trails who have never ridden an MTB before. My fear was that this makes the E-MTBs for the acceptance of the mountain bike rather counterproductive.
And then came the change of heart?
Yes. When I rode an E-MTB on the trail myself for the first time at a dealer event, I was immediately "on fire". In addition, I have experienced that my fears, at least here in the Ruhr area, have not come true. E-MTBs were primarily bought by people who had a long MTB past before.
I only ride electrically now. First and foremost, because my wounds from the active BMX time with increasing age physically restrict me more than I would like. But also because it's just more fun for me. I'm glad that I can still fully keep up with my boys on the trail through the E-MTB.
What trends do you see in the bike market in the near future?
The trend towards light E-MTBs will continue to spread. At the moment, we are experiencing a step backwards in light e-mountain bikes in terms of battery performance. Low weight while maintaining battery performance - that's the future for me. In this context, I admire the courage and foresight of Peter Schlitt to position the ROTWILD brand so consistently as an E-MTB brand and to completely eliminate conventional bikes from the range.
For the future of the sport, I also hope that more will be invested in the infrastructure for mountain biking. The sport has gained in popularity in recent years, the range of tours and trails must be expanded and people channeled onto these routes. Only then can conflicts with hikers and conservationists be avoided and the acceptance of mountain biking be consolidated. In this area I am also active with the store. As the owner, I talk to those responsible here in our region and try to get involved constructively. This is a matter of course for me. With the Bikeshop, I want to be both a meeting place for the scene and a contact point for people who are interested in mountain biking for the first time.
