Hello,

Thank you for the nice article about the start of Babboe in Finland. Hopefully we can answer all the questions which the readers have about Babboe and our bikes.

Let´s try to explain a bit more about Babboe. Babboe has been started in Holland around 2005 when some families with kids were looking for a good cargobike but for an affordable price. There were good quality cargobikes available in the market at that time, but extremely highly priced. So they decided to ask a professional engineering office to design an own cargobike, which is of topquality and has all the features which are important for families with kids. But the price should be affordable. Two years later (2007) the first Babboe came in the market in Holland.

The whole philosophy behind Babboe is that it is “developed by parents, for other parents” and that the cargobike must be of a top quality, of a nice design and reasonably priced for a wide audience.

To keep the prices as low as possible Babboe has a different business model:

1. Online sales of the Babboe cargobikes via webshops only and not via the traditional bikeshops and other dealers.

2. Work together with big, strong partners to keep the marketing budget low and to market the Babboe bikes together with the partners and create special offers together. For example in Holland in cooperation with the biggest bank, Rabobank, special offers could be made to their customers in Holland.

3. Distribute the cargobike unassembled as a do-it-yourself installation package, in stead of selling and distributing ready assembled bikes.

Unfortunately in Finland we are not able to make the same special offers for the Babboe cargobikes as in Holland, simply because we have a lot of additional costs (high transportcosts from Holland to Finland and also within Finland, a small potential market of 5 million people in a big country which needs to be served, higher ALV than in Holland, no subsidies on bikes and biking like in Holland) and no partners yet who are willing to create amazing offers for the Finnish consumers.

Nevertheless also with the current pricing, starting from 1449 euro for a Babboe Big, we are absolutely sure we offer to you a nice design, top quality bike for a very interesting price!!

However, when somebody can bring us in contact with big partners who are willing to co-operate with us and make special offers for their Finnish customers, just let us know!!

Hopefully the weather will improve soon, so we can all enjoy fully our cargobikes on the road !!

p.s. Teppo, feel free to translate this into finnish if you have the energy for it

Kiva, että laatikkopyörät rantautuvat Suomeen laajalta rintamalta ja hyvä idea on nimenomaan tuo Babboen markkinointi suoraan päiväkodeissa ym. Babboe-kohderyhmä on varmaan monelta osin eri, kuin varsinaiset pyöräilyharrastajat, joiden en usko varsinkaan Bigiin edes ihastuvankaan.

Hyvä kuitenkin tosiaan, kun on oma Babboe jo alla hollannin hinnoilla. Bisneksestä en mitään tiedä, enkä ymmärrä, mutta vähän maallikkoa ihmetyttää tuo kova hinnannousu. Kuljetuskustannukset itselleni kun olivat 135 e (ovelle) ja pyörä 800 e ja arvonlisäveron ero ymmärtääkseni 19/23% (lokakuun alusta vissiin 21/23). Ja jos nyt uusi turkulaistilaaja maksaisi 1500 + vielä kuljetuskustannukset Turkuun, mikä varmaan lienee tuon satasen paikkeilla? Tilaus kuitenkin oli hollantia taitamattomallekin varsin helppoa, kuten myös kasaus -joka ei nytkään hintaan sisälly.

Luulin myös, että nuo pankin, Body Shopin yms. hintakampanjat ovat jotain lyhyempiaikaisia projektiluontoisia juttuja, joilla ei ollut tekemistä perustilauksen kanssa. Vai tukeeko joku taho joka ikistä fillarikauppaa?

Toki mainostamisesta, suomisivujen ylläpitämisestä ym. on varmasti kuluja ja kauppias tarvitsee pötyä pyötään, mutta noinko iso ero todella on?

We are convinced that it is a good thing for the Finnish cycling community that Babboe came over to Finland and that the Babboe bikes are now available in Finland on a large scale with local stock,  service and guarantee, like it should be. We are very enthousiastic and with our team we will work hard to get the Babboes sold all over Finland from North to South and from East to West, and by doing so make the Babboe bikes known and available for a wider audience in Finland.

It has no use to spend a lot of energy in things which we unfortunately cannot change, which are just facts. The conditions in Holland are just very different than in Finland in many ways. The costs are kept as low as possible, but Finland is just a very expensive country in many ways to set up the business and to have a good structure. It is better for us to try to get forward and to use our energy positively and in that way get to the best possible end result.

For example, it would be good if the Finnish cycling community (tavarafillari?) would start a lobby to the Finnish government or to the local Municipality of Helsinki to convince them how environmental friendly (cargo)biking is. Besides that how safe it is and how healthy compared to using a car. And also how nice it would be to have less cars in city centers, less parking areas for cars and so on. Try to convince the governments to lower their taxes on bikes in general and try to stimulate people to buy bikes. Resulting for example in a more healthy population with less healthcare costs. Another good example in this area is a city in the Benelux who pays back to their citizens 400 euro for every electric cargo bike bought!! If we could achieve that, we would make a hughe step forward!!

Another action point is more for Babboe itself, to find the same kind of big, strong partners like in Holland who are interested to jump into the nice Babboe project and who are willing and able to supply their customers with the same kind of offers as in Holland. We can only hope that we will soon be in contact with such companies in Finland too.

Still even today the Babboe cargo bike in Finland is a very good choice, with their top quality, top design, good service and sharp pricing.  We are convinced we can make a lot of people and families very happy with our beautiful product and we are strongly committed to do so!!

Kyselijöille olen “mainostanut” Babboe Bigin suomalaista vaneria olevaa laatikkoa. Mielestäni babboe.nl sivuilla aiemmin luki näin. Nyt viimeksi lukikin sen sijaan eurooppalaista vaneria. Miten on, voinko jatkaa kotimaisuusasteen hehkutusta vaiko en? 

We are closing our doors now for a short holiday. Which means that we are not able to answer the questions on the blog.

When people want to contact us and ask more and know more about Babboe, please feel free to contact us:

 
E-mail.  asiakaspalvelu@babboe.fi
Tel. 050-3442162 Mia in Finnish
Tel. 040-7709853 Gert-Jan in English

We are happy to answer all your questions.