We don't, as a rule, run lots of "industry" stories, but the announcement that sizable outdoor chain Snow+Rock has bought London-based bike shop Cycle Surgery seems interesting enough to make the cut.

Cycle Surgery operates from seven locations in London. It was founded by Ben Cater and Stephen Swinton fifteen years ago, and has been taken over by Snow+Rock for the traditionally-undisclosed sum of money, reports BikeBiz.

Dion Taylor, Managing Director of Snow+Rock said:

"The combination of these two brands will give us the opportunity to introduce cycling to our core customer base UK wide and helps us to fulfill our ambition to be the best independent specialist sports and outdoor retailer in the UK year round."

Ben Cater said:

"After owning and managing Cycle Surgery for fifteen years we have decided that the time is right to bow out of the cycle business. Through discussions with the owners of Snow+Rock, we felt enormous synergy and confidence that they would stay true to our core values, whilst taking Cycle Surgery to the next level. They have a first rate infrastructure that can only benefit Cycle Surgery in the coming years making our brand a household name UK-wide, while maintaining our core value 'that customers should leave our stores more enthusiastic about cycling than when they entered.'"

And the reason why this is interesting? Well, the UK bike industry is something of a closed shop, so any substantial company coming in from "the outside" is worthy of note. Particularly one like Snow+Rock, which we suspect is in a position to raise the bike retailing game in general...