A BRIEF HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF NDURO EVENTS
Originally from Tauranga, Tim and Belinda Farmer are both keen mountain-bikers. Tim Farmer had his first taste of organizing small-scale mountain biking events when they were living in Auckland, but like many Auckland mountain bikers they were increasingly spending most weekends driving to Rotorua to ride in Whakarewarewa. In 2013 the couple moved to Rotorua to enjoy the lifestyle, and upon starting a family the search was on for a home-based job that Belinda could focus on.
Meanwhile, a local mountain-bike events company (the original Nduro Events) was up for sale. Seeing the opportunity to start a home-based business in the area of mountain-bike event management that they already had some knowledge of, the Nduro business was bought and relaunched.
Now Nduro Events Ltd organises and runs cross-country mountain biking events across the North Island that are regarded by the industry and riders alike as amongst the best-run mountain biking events in New Zealand and is no longer a home based business.
WHAT MAKES NDURO EVENTS UNIQUE AND EXCELLENT?
The close-knit Nduro team have a vision to put on the types of high quality events that they would like to participate in themselves, and which other businesses want to be associated with. The aim is to make their events a ‘Destination Experience’ on a par with (or better than) iconic events like the Rotorua Marathon and Taupo’s Great Lake Cycle Challenge.
So far, they are succeeding, and have exceeded some of their goals. This attention to quality, coupled with a very active digital marketing strategy and a drive to keep broadening their entrant base through innovative new event features, has made Nduro Events into an exceptionally successful business and a by-word for high quality, great fun events that draw thousands of riders to Rotorua every year. Riders don’t just turn up, race and go home they continue to engage with Nduro, clocking up tens of thousands of video-views, Facebook ‘likes’, comments and shares, and more.
KEY BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENTS AND RESULTS OF NDURO EVENTS
The key business achievements focus around the large increases in riders attending Nduro events.
When entrant numbers for 2016 races are compared to the numbers before Belinda and Tim took over, the increases are substantial:
The close-knit Nduro team have a vision to put on the types of high quality events that they would like to participate in themselves, and which other businesses want to be associated with. The aim is to make their events a ‘Destination Experience’ on a par with (or better than) iconic events like the Rotorua Marathon and Taupo’s Great Lake Cycle Challenge.
So far, they are succeeding, and have exceeded some of their goals. This attention to quality, coupled with a very active digital marketing strategy and a drive to keep broadening their entrant base through innovative new event features, has made Nduro Events into an exceptionally successful business and a by-word for high quality, great fun events that draw thousands of riders to Rotorua every year. Riders don’t just turn up, race and go home they continue to engage with Nduro, clocking up tens of thousands of video-views, Facebook ‘likes’, comments and shares, and more.
KEY BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENTS AND RESULTS OF NDURO EVENTS
The key business achievements focus around the large increases in riders attending Nduro events.
When entrant numbers for 2016 races are compared to the numbers before Belinda and Tim took over, the increases are substantial:
- The number of riders in the Winter Series race have increased 757%.
- The number of riders in the Whaka100 race have increased 254%.
- The number of riders in the Craters Classic race have increased 206%.
- The number of riders in the Summer Cup races have reached 200 per race – essentially up from zero as the Summer Cup had been stopped in 2010 due to low numbers.
- 140 riders from 19 countries came to Rotorua when Nduro ran the 2016 World 24 Hour Solo Mountain Biking Championships, with the World Endurance Mountain Bike Organisation declaring it “the best world championships ever run”.
