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Those margins sound about right.
I do agree with your point. It is very hard to make it work, especially with London levels of overhead.
Servicing and P&A is dependent on your customer profile. It's the same amount of time to replace a Super Record or Dura-Ace mech as a Claris one, but obviously the profit is way bigger.
E-bikes are an interesting area, but not one I feel very qualified to talk about. Anecdotally, I am seeing a lot more about, and I suspect it's not a saturated market. How long that lasts for, who knows?
Mikenetic-
I agree on the overheads - Workshop based models can work if the overheads are low - i.e non high street location, and word of mouth/reviews are good.
We've seen a steady increase in E-Bike sales, they seem to be either a fun + 1 for people who own lots of bikes, or a decent commuting option if you travel around to meetings and don't want to get sweaty etc (I've had customers buy e-bikes over scooters/motorbikes)
roadwarrior
+/-30%, 40 if you’re lucky.
In my opinion a service based model is only sustainable with minimal overheads, servicing is labour intensive, requires decent staff, space and tools etc... with inner city overheads going the way they are, I can’t see how you could survive on servicing and the odd P&A sale. I agree about providing a curated selection of products, but (IMO) if things carry on as they are, folding bikes and ebikes are the areas where growth and profit will occur. You’ll still sell the odd road or gravel bike, but ebikes and decent folders are to today what the MtB was to the 90s and the road bike was to the 10s.