Wilmington entrepreneur takes his bike around the world

GlideBikes goes global with move into Australia, New Zealand, U.K.

Wilmington Business Journal Article By Jason Frye

Ed Mondello: “It became very clear that it was time to act, but we didn’t know where to start.”

Wilmington-based GlideBikes is positioned to become the worldwide leader in balance bikes since the company expanded into three new international markets on Dec. 5.

The move into the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand follows close on the heels of a mid-summer expansion into Canadian markets as Ed Mondello, inventor of the GlideBike and president of GlideBikes Inc., finds increased interest in his balance bikes around the globe.

Balance bikes, which resemble bicycles without pedals, help teach children two-wheel balance without the aid of training wheels.

The height and angle of the seat allows children to sit with their feet touching the ground and “walk” the bike. The result was a very low balance speed, which resulted in a safer experience for learners.

Mondello built his first balance bike after watching his daughtergrow frustrated with learning to ride a bicycle. The prototype worked and became a hit with her and her playmates, prompting him to get serious about production.

In 2006, he started full-scale production in a workshop in Wilmington. By 2008, he and his staff couldn’t keep up with demand and he moved production to facilities overseas. Since then he’s been showing GlideBikes’ current product line, which includes the Mini Glider for children 2-5 and Go Glider for children 5-10, at trade shows and toy fairs across the country.

“We’d been going to international toy fairs and trade shows in New York and everyone loved [our bikes]. People from all over the world – from England to Iran to Australia – were excited about the product and had questions about availability and distribution into their countries,” he said. “It became very clear that it was time to act, but we didn't know where to start.”

Unsure of how to move into overseas markets, Mondello concentrated on building the brand here at home. For three years he designed, tweaked and sold GlideBikes in the U.S., finding more success at every turn, including placing his bikes in the product lineups of several prominent national retailers.

“You can find GlideBikes at Costco, on Amazon.com, in Toys-R-Us and in Discovery Channel Stores,” he said.

On top of the success at home, he saw a continued interest at international toy fairs and began making Internet sales in numerous foreign markets. Finally an interested customer in the United Kingdom inquired about becoming a distributor. That's when he began seriously exploring the opportunities abroad.

He reviewed materials he had collected at the international toy fair and the InterBike (an international bicycle convention) but couldn't find anyone offering a similar product. He then spent hours searching the Internet for competitors in his target nations. The results were encouraging.

“I didn't find anyone doing what we do. Everyone was focused on the 2-to-4-year-old market, but our products currently serve 2-to-5-year-olds and 5-to-10-year-olds. I knew I had a niche to move into,” he said.

But there was one problem: “I didn't have much experience in retail, and none in international retail. When I started looking into European markets, I was astonished at how little I knew.”

Perhaps the biggest obstacle was the mountain of paperwork that awaited his arrival in every country GlideBikes was targeting. In addition to the complications of customs regulations and the paperwork associated with duties, tariffs and international shipping, he discovered he needed to meet product safety requirements and fabrication standards and redesign his packaging and manuals to comply with verbiage and design standards. “That,” he said, “and about a hundred other things.”

Fortunately he and his design team had the foresight to exceed the safety standards required of their product. As he began to research safety and manufacturing standards around the globe, he found that GlideBikes exceeded every expectation.

In 2010, GlideBikes sold 7,000 units and could have sold many more if they had access to more operating capital. Mondello hopes the expansion into Canada earlier this year will help infuse the company with the funds needed to supply the new territories with plenty of GlideBikes.

“We'll reach a point soon where we've built up enough capital to be able to expand production orders. After that, we’ll look into more places to sell GlideBikes,” he said.

The new territories represent a completely untapped market Mondello believes will embrace GlideBikes’ product line, and he hopes to expand into other eager markets in the next two years. He’ll be attending the EuroBike international trade show and bicycle expo in Friedrichshafen, Germany, at the end of August 2011. There he will meet with dozens of trade representatives and distributors and expose the public to GlideBikes. He hopes to have a new product on the market by then too – the Super Glider, for riders ages 10 to adult.

“We're waiting on the arrival of the Super Glider prototypes at the same time we’re troubleshooting our international expansion, so it's a busy time. We have to figure out how to support local marketing efforts, how to train our distributors, and how much inventory to have on hand. When we tack on another product, it makes things that much more complicated,” Mondello said.

Despite the challenges, Mondello believes in his product and his company.

“Expanding into four new markets this year is just the beginning of what we can do,” he said.