A Cornish manufacturer has paid tribute to the assistance it has received from the Unlocking Potential programme.
Falmouth-based recumbent trike manufacturer, Inspired Cycle Engineering (ICE), has seen strong international growth across 32 countries.
With sights set to become the ‘Aston Martin’ of the trike-world, co-directors Neil Selwood and Chris Parker attribute their ICE 2020 Growth and Innovation plan to the support received through the Unlocking Potential ERDF-funded Future Focus programme, which has been working with the business for the past 18 months.
Selwood said: “We started ICE as a hobby over 21 years ago; we love trikes – it’s that simple – and we still do. We saw the recumbent bike market begin to grow and the interest in what we were doing at ICE started to pick up speed.
“We recognised that to take ICE to the next level we were going to need some outside help and that’s where Unlocking Potential have come in. We needed a change in mindset and a change in our leadership and management approach, more importantly we needed a clear and agreed plan and strategy.”
Unlocking Potential supported ICE to develop and launch its ICE 2020 plan. Through support from Sally Reid and David Bone, part of Unlocking Potential’s Innovation Coaching team, ICE developed its thinking and ways of working in areas the business had never previously had the resource or knowledge to undertake.
Programme director for Unlocking Potential, Allyson Glover, said: “ICE is a great business with a really strong culture of innovation and excellence. We wanted to create a plan from the bottom up that reflected the journey the business has been on but enabled them to break through to the next level of opportunity.”
