Christeyns Vehicle Donated to Local Cycle Charity

Bradford laundry and chemical manufacturing company Christeyns has donated one of its ex-works vehicles to local charity Cycle-re-Cycle after a practical demonstration on bicycle maintenance by the charity’s John Coulton.

The charity recovers old bicycles and gives them a new lease of life, as chair Chris Evans from the Thornhill Road, Bradford base explained: “We can usually refurbish old cycles and make them useful again, although occasionally some require new parts or are only good for spares.  Having this van has enabled us to collect more bikes, which end up being sold in our shop to fund local organisations and people, like the YMCA, Action for Blind People, Barnardo’s Young Carers, foster parents, students, the unemployed and those on low incomes.”

The charity also supports the Bradford Bike Hub, which aims to increase numbers of cyclists around the city travelling to college, university or work.  The recent Grand Depart of the Tour de France significantly boosted people’s interest in cycling for work and pleasure and a number of Christeyns employees were tour makers during the Yorkshire leg.

John Coulton collected the Peugeot van, along with Chris Evans, about a month after his presentation to the Christeyns team at one of the company’s ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions.  It has already helped the charity to save money as it can carry up to 10 bicycles and can often be used instead of hiring a larger truck to make collections.  As John commented: “Demand for bicycles has gone absolutely sky-high since the Tour de France; we’ve done as much in three months this year as we did in six months last year, so that’s double the business.  We supply refurbished bicycles to students, staff and others in the local area and this van’s really helped us operate more economically.”

The van was supplied to the charity after being fully refurbished by Christeyns, with tax and MOT included.

Christeyns managing director Nick Garthwaite said “Christeyns is delighted to support this worthwhile local charity, which is helping people become more mobile and greening Bradford’s streets at the same time.”

ENDS

PHOTO-CAPTION (ref: 0051): Christeyns’ Jill Ingham and Jayne Talbot hand over the car keys to Cycle-re-Cycle’s John Coulton and Chris Evans

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