Over 50 companies gathered to encourage business innovation, and discuss ways to grow Scottish products in the global mountain biking sector.
Purchases of biking accessories currently generates £853m for the UK economy and the event, entitled “Celebrating Scottish Innovation in Mountain Biking,” was held at the Glentress Mounting Biking Centre near Peebles and was hosted by Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Mountain Bike Development Consortium (SMBDC), Sporting Chance Initiative as well as further and higher education institutions.
Organisers of the event hope to increase Scotland’s share of the global biking accessories market, finding companies to collaborate with to bring the right raw materials, processes, skills and knowledge to new ventures and projects.
David Smith, director of Innovation at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Mountain biking currently generates £119m a year for the Scottish economy, with market share predicted to increase to £155m in the next five years – it’s on target to become Scotland’s most popular adventure activity after walking”.
“We can encourage innovative, quality, Scottish-made accessories that demonstrate why Scotland is a global destination and centre of excellence for mountain biking” he added.
Scotland is recognised as one of the world’s leading locations for mountain biking, and was rated as a Global Superstar by the International Mountain Bicycling Association in 2005 and 2006.
Recent figures show that more than 1.3 million visits are made to Scotland each year for mountain biking.
