Meet Empire Cycles
Chris Williams – Managing Director
Chris has always had a bike. He recalls his first black Rally Burner BMX with its Acorn mag wheels and dice valve caps: "awesome”. At ten years old, his uncle sat him on a 1988 Kawasaki KX 250 2-stroke motocross bike and for Chris, this moment changed his life. His mum said he could save up for a motocross bike (as she thought he never would) and after five years, and £1500 in the piggy bank, an "absolutely knackered” Yamaha YZ125 2-stroke was his. "I loved the smell, the noise, the power, the moving parts”, Chris romanticises. This first motocross bike was too big for him, needed a lot of work, Chris struggled to ride it and it was "lethal”. Chris’s BMX riding then became mountain biking to train for motocross: the perfect union. He developed his design and engineering skills with his motocross bikes and quickly became the maintenance man for his brother’s and friends’ bikes. He remembers rebuilding his motocross bike the day before a race and the circlip spinning across the garage floor never to be seen again: he didn’t make the race that time. Over time, Chris’s mountain biking skills and interest developed and it became more of a sport in its own right.
More recently, Chris can be seen learning to surf in the South, snowboarding when he can, windsurfing on Cumbria’s lakes and estuaries, hiking a British fell, dining (too much!) in pubs across the land, renovating houses, and chain sawing to feed the wood burner.
Richard West – Director
A highly successful, entrepreneurial and pragmatic Chairman and Managing Director, with a graduate background in aero-engineering at Rolls-Royce and an MBA from Manchester Business School. A broad and impressive track record of building business growth and creating shareholder value for public and private enterprises including start up, acquisition and business sale. A natural leader, with energy and enthusiasm to create positive change, improve productivity and revenues, and gain exceptional performance. Mr West has a 30-year experience of global business development, with extensive commercial contacts in EU, Asia/China, and in the USA.
Tony Anderton – Director
Already the Owner and Managing Director of a successful engineering company specialising in the production of special purpose machinery, Tony is always looking for ways to push the boundaries of his business. Recently joining forces with Chris and Richard, we are manufacturing the cycle frames using the latest 3D machining techniques and keeping the entire production of the Empire Cycle range under one roof.
We have a team of engineers in our 16,000 sq.ft. production facility, with expert knowledge of machining techniques and assembly to produce beautifully crafted Mountain and Downhill bikes.
A keen road and mountain bike cyclist himself, recently completing an overnight run from Manchester to Blackpool for the British Heart Foundation, Tony has a direct interest in making the Empire Cycle range the best available.
