Business Daily meets: Will Butler-Adams

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4 • 816 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2022

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Brompton makes 100,000 foldable bikes in London every year and exports about 75% of them. Chief executive Will Butler-Adams tells us how he grew the business around the world. He also explains how he's navigating inflation, and the prospect of recession. Plus, why he believes his mission is not simply to sell more bikes, but to change how people live in cities around the globe.

Producer/presenter: James Graham Photo: Will Butler-Adams on a Brompton bike at his London factory. Credit: Brompton.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the sound of crowd science.
0:02.5	We shoot a laser beam at this atom.
0:05.2	Is that a big canister of oxygen in the background?
0:07.8	Oh, there's a wasp in there.
0:09.3	Yep.
0:09.7	That's possibly the most disgusting thing I've heard this week.
0:13.6	But it's one of the nicest fun facts you're going to hear today.
0:16.4	So here I'm actually holding a donut.
0:18.3	What are you going to do with that?
0:19.3	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:22.8	Welcome to Business Daily Meets with me, James Graham, here on the BBC World Service.
0:28.3	Today we're talking to Will Butler Adams.
0:30.8	He runs Brompton bicycles, which makes distinctive folding bikes which have been adopted by commuters around the world.
0:37.7	He tells us how the business became a global force.
0:40.5	You believe in what you're doing.
0:42.0	You take your time.
0:43.5	Things don't happen overnight.
0:45.0	It's hard graft.
0:46.8	It's belief, passion, you know, hustling, bustling.
0:50.8	And how he's dealing with rising prices and the prospect of a recession. But he says
0:56.1	it's not all about the bottom line. Our mission isn't to sell millions of Brompton bicycles. Our
1:01.7	mission is to change how people live in cities. So today we're getting on our bikes and talking about cycling.
	...

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