A Cornish manufacturer of recumbent tricycles that have been used to travel to the South Pole and break world records has become employee owned.
Falmouth-based ICE Trikes will share its profits with its workforce of around 40 people, some of whom have been with the company for more than 20 years.
ICE - which stands for Inspired Cycle Engineering - was founded by Chris Parker and Neil Selwood in 1999, but the business can trace its beginnings back to the mid 1980s, when its original ‘Trice’ model was produced.
It has gone on to sell thousands of its trikes, designed for racing and mobility purposes, in more than 30 countries through its worldwide network of dealers.
The company has now established an employee ownership trust, which will form a new board to oversee the business. A new managing director role has been created to allow workers to continue a “hands on” focus on developing the trikes at its base on Tregoniggie Industrial Estate.
Mr Parker said: “What Neil and I do is design, innovate and bring our value to the hands-on delivery of high-quality trikes. Business is something that we have picked up along the way and we now feel that bringing in someone as managing director to run the business side frees up our time for our passion and the reason we started the business in the first place.”
Mr Selwood added: “Our aim is to always surpass people’s expectations in everything we do. That is why ICE Trikes have played their part in setting world records, cycling to the South Pole, touring the globe in supreme comfort, and winning countless races as well as enabling people to enjoy their daily commute or a relaxed trip to the shops.
“We couldn’t have done that without our team and by becoming employee owned we keep that passion for our work for years to come.”
Dutch rider Jochem Leemans became the fastest trike rider in the world over a distance of 100km, when he travelled the distance on his ICE VTX trike in a time of two hours, 24 minutes and 58 seconds, clocking up an average speed of 25.72mph.
In 2013, Maria Leijerstam cycled to the South Pole on ICE’s Polar Cycle. Over 10 days and 14 hours, she travelled more than 630km, cycling for up to 17 hours a day in temperatures of -29°C.
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