Development & automation for the UK’s largest Cycle to Work provider

Loft has helped this Sunday Times FastTrack 100 winner grow from start-up challenger brand to household name, with revenues of over £58m/year.

The challenge

Use technology to help Cyclescheme grow from start-up challenger brand to become the UK’s market-leading Cycle to Work provider in the UK, and an award-winning cycling industry innovator.

What we did

In early 2007, our founders started working with the challenger brand Cyclescheme to automate back-end systems, accelerate processes and drive innovation through a fully digital user experience. This low initial investment delivered instant ROI and increased signups by over 20,000. In 2008, we implemented the UK’s first paperless hire agreement which led to certificates being delivered on the same day.

This innovation created over 35,000 more conversions. The success of these and other early digital innovations led to Cyclescheme becoming a Sunday Times Fast Track 100 Winner. Loft’s delivery of a fully self-managed system was recognised as a key contribution to the accolade.

The collaboration had only just begun. In 2010, Cyclescheme’s owners sold the business to Grass Roots, which retained Loft as a trusted digital transformation partner, and the brand went from strength to strength. In just a few years Loft overhauled the entire architecture onto a cloud native environment, and in doing so unified consumer facing sites, which in turn led to Cyclescheme surpassing the 800,000 certificate mark.

Following this success – and building on the existing automated technology, business logic and digital processes – Myschemes was launched in 2011; Childcarescheme and Computingscheme in 2012; and Techscheme and Phonescheme in 2015, all delivered on AWS. Through a series of rapid product test and iteration cycles, the company’s suite of products continued to grow and evolve, supporting the acquisition of Grass Roots by Blackhawk Network in late 2016.

Loft continues today as the trusted delivery partner for this flagship brand, supporting strategies to integrate, evolve and execute new products and innovations for the group.

Highlights

• Growth from start up to annual revenues over £58,000,000
• Over 850,000 high value transactions
• Close partnership over more than a decade supporting growth and profitability of the business
• Flagship product in three corporate acquisitions
• Lead to development of multiple spin-off products

Why it matters

Developed by Loft, Cyclescheme’s technology enables employees of participating organisations to buy a bike and/or cycling equipment via the government’s Cycle to Work scheme. The purchase is covered via a tax-free, salary sacrifice scheme.

Thanks to Loft’s systems, hundreds of thousands of employees are travelling by bike rather than car, reducing carbon emissions and benefitting the health and wellbeing of each cyclist. Cyclescheme’s phenomenal success has come in parallel with big wins for the environment and the physical and mental health of a significant number of people.

About Cyclescheme

Cyclescheme is the leading provider of the government’s Cycle to Work initiative. A salary sacrifice scheme, it enables employees to purchase bikes and accessories tax efficiently through their employer’s payroll. E-bikes, cargo bikes and bike rental are also available. At the time of writing, Cyclescheme had nearly a million satisfied customers.

Let’s talk

Active travel is a core industry for Loft. To talk to us about your project get in touch via [email protected].