The ‘Grounded’ team always tries to get the most out of riding. Even though winter is a difficult period to ride your bike, we still made a flat edit with our team riders: @simonantoine @thestreetisyours @steffenbuylebmx and @barrebmx!
Shop name: Groundedbmx
Location: Ninove and online at Groundedbmx.com
Years in business: Almost 11 year now
Best year yet: 2014
Worst year yet: 2018
2020 has been, well, different. When did Covid-19 turn up and start influencing your business?
Brecht Baeyens: March 2020 we had to close the shop due to lockdown regulations. We had to close for almost 3 months and missed out on a ton of sales during our best months April and May. During summer season we had a lot of demand for bikes but we had lot’s of trouble getting our hands on stock. After summer season we had to close the shop again due to lockdown. We got to open up again mid December but there are lots of regulations ...
Did you take any action from the start or were you thinking this would be over in a few weeks?
Brecht Baeyens: I knew shit hit the fan big time and this would take a long as time to blow over, so we started cutting costs quick and made sure we filled in all the paperwork correctly to receive financial support from the government. We have always had a multi channel business due to our combination of
Name shop: Groundedbmx
Location: Ninove
Years in business: 8
Employees: 2 sometimes 3
What was the reason for you to start a BMX shop?
Groundedbmx: I always knew I wanted to run my own company. Since my head is always full of ideas I talked to a friend of mine who has owned multiple businesses to figure out what Idea I should pursue. He told me to only go for the one I’m most passionate about. So, that was BMX :), a no brainer.
What was your first location like?
Groundedbmx: I started Grounded as an online store but soon had customers picking up parts in my bedroom which turned into a stockroom pretty quickly.
How did your first year turn out?
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.