Pedalling their wares

March 6, 2012
The Age

From sushi to beer, tasty treats are arriving on three wheels, writes Jane Holroyd.

IN HIS native Denmark, Peter Santos says it is common to see all types of street food and beverages sold from bicycles, with offerings including espressos, Chinese takeaway, fresh roasted nuts and pancakes.

Santos, who began importing Danish Christiania cargo bikes in 2006, says small-business owners in Australia are saddling up to the go-anywhere opportunities bikes offer.

While most of Santos’ customers are parents wanting an eco-friendly way of carting their children around, increasingly the former builder is being asked to custom-build bikes to carry everything from beer kegs and espresso machines to sushi and ice-cream freezers.

Among his more recognisable customers are the Good Brew Company and Tiffins Melbourne, the city-based curry business that delivers direct to workers’ desks. Santos is also building 10 bikes for a non-profit organisation. The project will pair people who have experienced homelessness and unemployment with their own foodie mobile microbusiness.

Serge Melis, owner of gelato and dessert wholesaler Gioco, is also in line for a cargo bike. Melis wants a gelato bike, possibly electric, to hawk his products at markets around Melbourne. Besides wholesaling, Gioco has a cafe in Reservoir but Melis sees bikes as a fun and flexible means of extending his retail reach. He says: ”If the mountain will not come to Muhammad …”

There are some logistical issues. Melis would like to sell his gelati by the scoop. Santos has a suitably sized freezer but has pointed out that Victorian health and safety regulations would require hot water and a sink be installed on the bike. All doable, he says, but packaged gelati might be the pragmatic solution.

Melis plans to buy as many as six bikes. While these are unlikely to replace his wholesaling arm any time soon, he understands why small-scale operations are finding custom-built bikes an attractive option. ”With a traditional business there are so many running costs, such as rates and power bills … It’s actually a relatively cheap way to set up.”

Mastaneh Nazarian’s tea bike is about as small-scale as a business can get. The Iranian-born musician, mother and student bought a cargo bike recently with the aim of spreading ”tea culture”. Nazarian says too many Australians are drinking bad tea, pouring boiling, chlorinated water over average-quality tea bags. She sells her freshly brewed tea at school fetes and other community events. A green, ”slightly sweet” tea, sourced direct from a Japanese grower, is her biggest seller.

Because her tea is served without milk, there are few health and safety hiccups. She says her bike acts as a magnet: ”Many customers say, ‘I’m normally only a coffee person’.”

Andrea Brabazon, owner of North Fitzroy’s Loafer bakery, has also found the novelty value of a cargo bike can attract new customers. The bakery delivers pastry and about 80 loaves each day to cafes and restaurants in Collingwood, Fitzroy and Brunswick, to the CERES market in Brunswick East and its affiliated online organic food delivery business, Fair Food.

An unexpected benefit has been the bike’s ability to engage people, Brabazon says. ”People speak to you when you are riding by, or when you’re waiting at the lights, and it’s introduced us to new customers …”

While the bike was bought because it suited the bakery’s artisan ethos, Brabazon says it is actually more cost- and time-efficient than driving. ”For the most part we find that getting our product out on the bike is faster than the van, which we only use now in extreme weather. There are not the same parking hassles and there are bike paths that avoid main traffic snarls.”

Other businesses turn to bikes purely for environmental reasons. Urban honey-maker Lyndon Fenlon uses a cargo bike to deliver honey and to transport equipment such as honey extractors, spare boxes – even live bees.

Fenlon weighs a tidy 63 kilograms but his loads can weigh up to 130 kilograms. While his food miles have a tiny carbon footprint, they also hurt: ”I might have a 60-kilogram load of honey from one place but have to cycle it 25 kilometres across town to one of my registered kitchens to extract it, then cycle it back again so it can be sold on site.”

While clearly not motivated by money, Fenlon hopes to get access to more kitchens, more honey-making and a little less cycling.
Regional baker Pip Hayes has also turned to cycling for deliveries, albeit on a micro scale. Over winter, when activity at the Wye River General Store slows, Hayes takes some Melbourne orders. He visits the city on Mondays bearing bread inspired by the long-lasting organic loaves produced at the Poilane bakery in France. Hayes delivers the bread to 10 or so households scattered from Prahran to Coburg.

He is content to keep his Melbourne business a boutique operation. The former bike courier says it is simply a nice way to combine his loves. But it is also about extending the Wye River General Store’s reach. As Hayes pedals through the city streets, his dog Nellie rides behind on a trolley, drawing attention to the store’s sign on his bread basket. If Nellie does a good enough job, Hayes says he might have to invest in a cargo bike.

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