verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message evans cycles type privately held company industry cycling founded london united kingdom 1921 headquarters camino park crawley west sussex united kingdom key people mike tomkins chairman nick wilkinson ceo mike rice director jonathan blanchard cfo number of employees approx . 1 100 in 2012 website www.evanscycles.com evans cycles wandsworth high street london evans cycles is a british cycle retailer . it was opened in central london by a london cyclist frederick evans who won an award from britain s largest cycling club for the best cycling invention of 1925 . he left his shop to be run by his manager and joined the royal air force when war broke out in 1939 . he died in a road accident in 1944 and the shop and the national business that developed from it has had several owners . it is owned now by eci partners . contents 1 the history 2 sponsorship 3 recent expansion 4 current ownership 5 references the history edit the business was created by a london cyclist frederick w. evans . he created what the bicycle described as a quick release and reversible rear wheel device an ingenious feat for which he was awarded the cyclists touring club s first silver plaque as the inventor or producer of the greatest improvement in cycle design construction or equipment during the year 1925 . 1 evans opened a shop in kennington road in south east london known as f.w. evans cycles . with the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the royal air force and left the business in charge of his manager . the shop traded from this site for 30 years . evans died in a road accident in 1944 having never again run his shop . he was by then in the educational engineering branch of the raf . 2 the business was bought by joseph smith in the 1950s . at the time the shop sold cycles and toys . in the 1970s smith handed the business to his son gary who turned the shop into a specialist cycle retailer . after more than 50 years at kennington road the site came up for development . the shop moved to waterloo at 77 79 the cut . during the 1990s gary worked with mike rice the croydon store franchise owner to bring the other franchised stores under the control of f.w. evans cycles uk . during this time the evans cycles mail order catalogue was launched requiring a central distribution centre later established in leatherhead surrey . this coincided with the evans cycles web site being established . sponsorship edit for many years evans cycles has been involved in many different rider sponsoring activities including various racing teams in a range of cycling areas . recent expansion edit the business outgrew its distribution centre in leatherhead . in 2001 the head office and distribution centre moved to gatwick sussex which is still the company s base . the company opened between two and three stores each year until 2006 when it opened six . in 2004 evans cycles moved outside south east england with a branch in castleford yorkshire . there were eight new stores in 2007 current ownership edit trading as evans cycles the registered parent company name is evans holdings ltd registered office camino park james watt way crawley west sussex rh10 9tz . evans holdings and its subsidiaries are a private limited company evans cycles holdings ltd. company number 6474505 . in 2015 a majority stake in evans cycles was acquired by eci partners . references edit the bicycle uk 13 december 1944 p25 the bicycle uk 13 december 1944 p25 v t e british bicycle manufacturers current a bike bickerton boardman bootie brompton campion condor dawes defiance dolan ellis briggs enigma titanium falcon genesis halfords hetchins holdsworth islabikes lotus mercian moulton muddy fox orange paper pashley pedersen phillips planet x raleigh reynolds ridgeback robin hood saracen strida thorn ti group whyte defunct ariel bsa british eagle carlton claud butler chater lea coventry eagle coventry premier elswick hopper flying scot f.w. evans freddie grubb harry quinn hercules humber norman perry roberts rover royal enfield rudge whitworth sun sunbeam triumph viking warrick witcomb components brooks england dunlop middlemores saddles sturmey archer retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title evans cycles & oldid 743137102 categories cycle retailerscompanies based in crawleyretail companies established in 1921retail companies of the united kingdombritish companies established in 1921hidden categories articles needing additional references from march 2016all articles needing additional referencespages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom 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