BMX brothers win Queen’s Award

Two brothers behind the world’s largest underground skate park – set up with help from the University of Brighton – have been awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2018.

Lifelong BMX riders, Richard and Marc Moore, run The Source (Hastings) Ltd an online BMX retailer which in 2016 converted derelict Turkish bath under the White Rock area of Hastings seafront into the ‘Source Park’.

The University, through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), is partnering with The Source to develop the world’s first BMX freestyle coaching framework. This recently achieved University of Brighton’s Recognising Educational Quality REQ mark for freestyle BMX and skateboarding.

Dr James Wallis and Harvey Ells, both principal lecturers in the Sport & Service Management along with Carlotta Giussani, their KTP Associate, are the main service providers on this two-year project, partially funded by Innovate UK. 

The Queen’s Award is in the international trade category and comes on the back of continued international sales growth. The company has expanded from a single tiny retail store in Bexhill to become the largest BMX retailer in the world, regularly selling to over 80 countries. International sales exceeded £1m in 2016/17 and are continuing to rise.

Harvey said: “Congratulations to The Source for the Queen’s Award – they are great retailer innovators and supporters of both the local and wider BMX communities; this has been key to their ongoing success.”

Source Park now regularly hosts one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious BMX events, the Battle of Hastings, and high-profile and professional riders travel from around the world every September to compete in this three-day competition. It is also hosting one of the first girls-only event on 16 May 2018 and female competitors from around Europe are expected to take part.

Managing Director Richard Moore said: “It is a huge honour to receive this award. It is the most prestigious business award in the country and it is very gratifying to be recognised by the Queen for our achievements. It is a great reflection of all of the hard work from our local team in growing the business over the past 15 years and we have a range of plans to continue extending our presence in existing and new international markets.”

The brothers will go to Buckingham Palace this summer to receive the award which will be valid for the next five years.

For more information on the coaching project, go to: https://www.brighton.ac.uk/research-and-enterprise/enterprise/enterprise-projects/the-source.aspx  and for more information on The Source, go to www.sourcebmx.com

and for more information on The Source, go to:https://www.brighton.ac.uk/research-and-enterprise/groups/stl/research-projects/source-bmx.aspx