Leamington couple's balance bike company scoops industry awards - The Leamington Observer

Leamington couple's balance bike company scoops industry awards

Leamington Editorial 26th Jun, 2022   0

A COUPLE from Leamington who both walked away from successful careers to set up a children’s bike business, are celebrating an international industry award double.

Kidvelo Bikes, run by Karen and Gary Wood ,picked best buy and best ride awards at this year’s Loved By Parents Awards.

The couple set out to improve the performance and quality of children’s bikes and make them available to parents at affordable prices. The entrepreneurs’ had prior experience of distributing balance bikes and teaching thousands of children how to ride and they believe this is behind the success of their new brand.

Balance bikes are small bicycles without pedals that allow children as young as 18 months to ride on two wheels. By learning to balance the bike, with their feet safely on the floor, toddlers develop the balance skills required to move onto a pedal bike, without ever needing stabilisers.




As parents, Mr and Mrs Wood’s passion for these bikes started 14 years ago when discovering them for their own children, going on to retail and then, in 2014, distribute them around the UK and Ireland.

In 2019 they stepped up to manufacturing and the Kidvelo brand was founded.


And the couple are proud of how far they’ve come since walking away from their careers in IT and business development.

Mrs Wood said: “Having witnessed how easy and fun it was for our two-year-old and four-year-olds to learn to use a balance bike, we were inspired to jack in our successful careers and start retailing and spreading the word what balance bikes were. The company grew quickly from there.”

The Loved By Parents Awards is one of the largest parenting awards programmes worldwide.

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