UpShift clients, projects & collaborations,

Gates is the benchmark belt drive system globally. Getting it specified, sold, and supported correctly requires owning the entire value chain; engineering, spec,  production, retail and aftersales.

At OEM level:  I do spec guidance, design engineering consulting, and production setup through full commercialisation. Guiding product managers through selection decisions, ensuring implementation quality, and training assembly crews hands-on. Result: 8-figure OEM partnerships across France, Spain, and Benelux, with low inherent warranty returns.

At retail level: Building and training shop networks to sell and support with conviction and competence. I activated 1,500+ shops across France and Spain for this goal. I now run the same approach across Benelux and beyond.

Finalized contract project. I managed Niner bikes' European sales, marketing, HRM, and operations. 

Previous aftersales challenges had damaged dealer trust across the EU. I rebuilt those relationships from the ground up, re-engaging and recapturing many dealers who had written the brand off — turning historic liability into renewed allegiance and adding new shops for continent-wide reach. 

To support this, I expanded 3PL with local assembly operations, cutting costs, and improving ROIC by keeping close-to-market stock lean and agile.

The result: 600%+ growth, order values exceeding €1M/month, bolstered by 150+ press appearances annually, and the healthiest margins in the global operation. 

My opinions, insights and analysis have been published in Bicycle Retailer & Industry News (USA), SAZ Bike (DE), Cycling Industry News (UK) and BikeBiz (UK), four of the most widely read trade publications in the global cycling industry.

These invited editorial contributions cover strategy, current affairs, operations, product positioning, trade friction, market analysis, and distribution dynamics. They are not sponsored content or advertorial. 

This published voice reflects the same thinking I bring to client work: grounded in market reality, commercially sharp, and willing to say what the data actually shows.

I also serve as a panel judge for the UK's annual BikeBiz Awards — one of the UK's most recognised peer evaluations.

Finalized contract project as GM/VP of Eddy Merckx Cycles' USA business unit.  

I managed a major strategic pivot, transitioning the brand from a consumer-direct EU-supplied drop-ship webshop to a multi-channel, US-based operation. I set up FCL imports, domestic stocking in a brand-run and operated warehouse & showroom,  and 3FT staff with a rep salesforce of 10. 

  Alongside the commercial build-out, I adapted many operations processes to North American market expectations (after-sales, payments, etc), bridging the cultural gap that causes many EU brands to falter. 

We achieved 380% YoY value growth despite the B2C to B2B unit ASP value reduction inherent to the channel broadening strategy.  

 Q-Rings were bold, highly VRIO yet risky technology entering a market deeply sceptical of non-circular chainrings. In this environment, aftersales failures were a retail brand credibility event. Market recon revealed that riders couldn't identify the subtle setup orientation marks under real-world conditions, undermining the technology's performance promise. 

A targeted design intervention amplified the markings, reducing after-sales calls by 30%. With confidence restored, we launched a B2C trust-boosting 30-day trial program immediately after and saw return rates of less than 5%. B2B components of the campaign increased retailers' stocking by over 25% in Spain alone.  

Research project for E2 motor-gearbox product line (Ride 3/5/5+) in EU e-bike market. 

I developed a four-dataset triangulation methodology to establish OEM pricing recommendations, collecting anonymous data from 29 OEM product managers across Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and France alongside competitive benchmarking of 32 component combinations. 

I delivered product-tier pricing recommendations with confidence scoring and competitive positioning analysis. 

Getting Bosch specified and integrated correctly is genuinely complex work that new OEM product teams underestimate.

Working with Universal Transmissions, I develop and support OEM customers at 300–500 unit annual volumes through the full specification and launch process, covering highly technical parts selection across Bosch's system ecosystem, precise motor and battery positioning decisions, and ensuring the complete integration is commercially viable and launch-ready.

These are not off-the-shelf installations. Each client requires hands-on engineering guidance and product team coaching to get from concept to a bike that performs, sells, and doesn't come back.

 When 100,000+ products in the field need intervention, execution quality is everything. A single process failure compounds across the entire batch as warranty cost, reputational damage, or regulatory exposure.

For Gates, I received a full mandate to design the intervention from scratch: tooling, workflows, staffing, QC systems, and structured reporting back to HQ.

For Huffy, I took an established protocol and owned execution quality and exit QC, ensuring what left the facility met the standard.

Across both programs I led crews of up to 10, executing in-market upgrades and QC checks across 100,000+ units: component substitution, motherboard replacement, dimensional checks, print verification, and packaging QC. These programs don't just fix products. Done right, they protect brand relationships, prevent chargebacks, and turn a liability event into a non-event.

 client arrived with an ambitious subsidiary plan and the capital to fund it. Due diligence told a different story: declining domestic demand, chronic overstock at retail, and market conditions that couldn't sustain the original model without burning through reserves.

The honest move was to say so. I pivoted the project from a full retail and service subsidiary into a leaner, higher-ROIC combination of a curated national retail network and a targeted media exposure program.

The result: €1M in projected capital burn avoided over three years, top-tier industry exposure secured, and a 10-shop national retail network established and operating. The client got market presence, brand credibility, and capital preservation simultaneously.

Sometimes the most valuable advice is knowing when not to build what was planned. 

Finalized consulting project. Organisational troubleshooting to boost the export sales division of Kruitbosch parts distribution and their price-quality Cortina bike brand.

 Project delivered an organisational re-design: A sprint business transformation with the creation of a new customer-centric HQ-based workgroup to ensure export success. 

I led the analysis, troubleshooting and project design process, integrating input from key stakeholders we identified during the process to ensure ownership and project continuity.  

I helped design QO's global brand launch and GTM strategy, establishing multiple global distributors and boutique OEM brand deals. 

My brand launch press release reached top-level circulation in cycling's global A-Grade publications, with significant impact.  This work contributed to a perceived quality foundation that supported the holding company's reputational move toward a NYSE IPO. 

I established many of the brand's highest allegiance distributors and am building a network of boutique OEM clients.

 Bottom bracket standards had fragmented into chaos: BSA, BB86, BB30, PF30, and dozens of variants left shops unable to identify what they were even looking at, let alone sell confidently. 

I developed a turnkey BB identification flowchart and portfolio guide, translating technical complexity into a tool shops could use at the counter in seconds. 

Working with Morato + Infinito on graphic design, the result was a print-ready resource adopted by hundreds of shops.

Result: a 50%+ uplift in BB portfolio sales within a single quarter.