Name: Rod Evans

Business: A Mere Cycle Hire & Sales/Repairs

Opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9.30am to 5pm. Saturday 10am to 4pm. Closed Thursday and Sunday

When did you open your business and why?

I OPENED my business in 2016. I was a mobile business at the time doing bike hire, and then that progressed to repairs and from then on it’s just taken off.

I opened a shop, but I still work mobile as well and offer pick-ups and deliveries.

I offer full repairs and servicing at the shop in Market Street.

Why in this location?

I’m LOCAL to Ellesmere – I was born here and have lived here all my life.

Ellesmere hadn’t had a bike shop for around 23 years, so I thought it was about time I opened one up here.

Tell us about your business

We OFFER bike hire, which is quite unique in this area. We offer a delivery service to most places within the region. It’s growing and growing, and it’s really taken off well here.

Like I mentioned, it progressed from just hiring bikes to now offering repairs and servicing at the shop, so it’s more than hiring now.

We have a lot of new customers coming along, but we also get quite a lot of regulars and have a really loyal customer base which is nice. It’s great for us here to be able to see that, because it shows we must be doing something right.

We do get people from as far as Wrexham, Chester, Welshpool and Shrewsbury coming to our shop, so it’s nice to know our name must be known to people in those areas as well as by those living in and around Ellesmere.

We cater for adults and children, and now we even offer some dog trailers so people can ride with their dog behind them.

What is your proudest moment?

I THINK since starting the business up, the proudest moment would have to be opening the shop up to be honest.

It was a great day. I remember opening the doors up and seeing everything there and it all felt real then. We had the Mayor of Ellesmere who came down to open the shop with us, and I remember him being happy with the town having a bike shop once again.

It was a very proud day for all of us here.

Any strange requests?

We DON’T really get too many requests, because people tend to know exactly what it is they’re coming to us for.

I can remember one rather strange request was someone asking if we have any unicycles for hire, which we don’t.