“I’ve worked in the shop since I was a child; sweeping the floors, doing small repairs and learning the business, which I never considered a chore because I am a passionate cyclist anyway,” he said. “I started a degree course in computer science, but during the two years I was at university I had begun taking control of the business, which was really starting to take off. Something had to give, so the education went.”
Watson, then 20, began using mail order to expand the firm. He targeted the specialist cycling press, promising swift delivery of high-end components to savvy customers at highly competitive prices.
“We would take orders and discuss technicalities with the buyers,” he said. “Service has always been a priority. I remember, in the early days, my father and I would sit in the shop until the wee small hours in the run-up to Christmas, wrapping bicycle parts to take to the local post office the following morning so that people wouldn’t be disappointed.”
Watson, 31, recalls the first few years as being extremely tough. Marketing costs were high and the concept of mail order was relatively new for cycling enthusiasts reluctant to desert their local bicycle shops.
Watson insists he remained undaunted, convinced that success would come with hard work and persistence. He continued to follow the game plan; advertising heavily in cycling magazines and taking on more people to meet orders.
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His formal computer education did not go to waste and he recognised the potential of the internet instantly to crank his business up several gears.
In early 2001, he formed a partnership with the Belfast firm Export Technologies to develop and maintain a retail website that promised free, next-day delivery to customers in Ireland and the UK. ChainReactionCycles.com was born.
“We now have 100 employees supplying more than 100 countries and sending out more than 5,000 packages a week,” Watson said. “The difference between us and a small retailer is price and availability. If you want a certain cycling jersey, we’ll have all five colours ready to ship free of charge and you will receive your order the next day.”
There are few similarities between the business he took over in 1995 and what it has become, but it is still a family enterprise. Three of his sisters are employees; one is a graphic designer, another an accountant and a third looks after payroll.
“We never took in outside investment: we funded growth from cash flow and I went to the bank and asked for an overdraft,” he said. “Initially, the manager was sceptical, but as you get larger, the banks get less sceptical.”
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Watson declined to disclose his turnover on the basis that it might give competitors an edge. Although the company has grown exponentially over the past decade, he is not about to rest on his laurels.
“If you’re not expanding, then you’re sitting still and others will be only too happy to take your market share,” he said. “You are either on the way up or on the way down.”
With a thriving business to run, Watson does not find much time to indulge his passion for mountain biking, yet tries to go out as often as possible. “I certainly don’t begrudge going to work, but I love being out on the bike; it is work of sorts, but it is hard to beat the local forest parks for field study.”