UK wheelchair manufacturer celebrates opening of new larger premises

6th September 2024

Wednesday 4th September saw the grand opening of innovative wheelchair manufacturer newly expanded production facilities.

The Mountain Trike company welcomed guests to help celebrate the opening of their newly expanded premises, which included customers, distributors, local councillors and people who have supported the company over the years.

Since 2011 in a small village on the outskirts of Nantwich in Cheshire the Mountain Trike Company have been manufacturing wheelchairs that help change the lives of wheelchair users.

Surrounded by countryside and an entrance hidden by evergreens is GB Engineering and home to the Mountain Trike Company. The location couldn’t be more appropriate for a company who make wheelchairs designed to help access the great outdoors.

Founder and Managing Director, Tim Morgan has been on quite a journey since the initial Mountain Trike prototype which started life as part of his final year project at the University of Bath where he gained a 1st class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering. This combined with his passion for mountain biking is when Tim saw a gap in the market for wheelchairs that were off-road capable and set about designing the Mountain Trike - an all terrain wheelchair.

The very first prototype of the Mountain Trike!

After 5 years of design and development the first Mountain Trike came off the production line in August 2011 and several of those very first customers joined Mountain Trike at the opening event.

Picture of Mountain Trike No 001. Which is still going strong with customer No 001!

Move forward to almost 13 years to the day since the first sale of the Mountain Trike the company has seen a slow and steady growth. Going from UK sales only, to global sales, an increase in worldwide distributors such as USA, Canada, Australia, as well as some wonderful UK business partnerships with organisations such as Experience Community who developed Mountain Trike rambles, and a collaboration with the National Trust to develop the MT Push, the second of their now 5 products in their range - the company certainly hasn’t been stood still.

A big part of Mountain Trike is their community of riders (customers), who are almost as passionate about their Trikes as the team that work at Mountain Trike - many who came along to the event on the 4th.

So many Mountain Trike customers have become really good friends

The increase in the product range and sales were the key driving factors for the expansion of the premises. Manufacturing partner GB Engineering, who make the Mountain Trike frames, chassis parts and drivetrain had also seen a boom in their manufacturing so needed more space. Fortunately, there was space to expand the premises on the existing site which meant less disruption and could be achieved sympathetically to the local rural area.

The Mountain Trike manufacturing unit has expanded on the original site creating much needed extra space

The official opening and cutting of the ribbon was done simultaneously by long term Mountain Trike ambassadors Richard Brooks and Steve Hughes, who said a few words about the joy their Mountain Trike’s have given to them and their families over the years.

Customers Richard & Steve cut the ribbon and officially open Mountain Trike's new larger manufacturing unit - Richard had a slight problem due to the the one pair of blunt scissors!

Tim Morgan, Mountain Trike Managing Director, and Craig Grimes, Managing Director at Experience Community said a few words, Tim highlighting the journey of the company to date and Craig talked about how the relationship between Mountain Trike and Experience Community has developed and Craig went onto discuss all the work they do to support making the countryside more accessible.

Once the formalities were over guests had a tour of the premises and chatted and networked.

On display were the many parts (400+) which make up the Mountain Trike. Each and every Mountain Trike is hand built and tested on site

Talking about the event, Managing Director, Tim Morgan said, “it has been fantastic to mark the occasion and invite some of our key supporters along. Our new larger premises will make such a difference - each Mountain Trike is hand finished and we had run out of room in our previous much smaller space. We now manufacture 5 models which are made up of so many different components so storage was a real problem too. We can now unpack and store parts efficiently, build and test the Trikes with room to manoeuvre. More importantly the office is now located in the same area which makes team communication much easier - it was quite a walk before and surprising what a difference this makes. The whole working environment is so much better which will not only have a positive effect on productivity but staff moral too.”

Tim, went on to say, “I’m delighted with the new space and it now feels we can continue to grow and expand the Mountain Trike Company. Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate our opening.”