A personal interest in surfing and active sports, as well as a background in retail, led Mark McGowan to establish Bite in October 2005, having recognised an opportunity within the active sports market. Bite sells major brands such as Oakley, Vans, Animal, Rip Curl and O'Neill and deals with a total of 40 suppliers that link into the tag line of surf, snow, climb and ride.

"We build up good relationships with the brands," says McGowan, who explains that six major brands - having started out first with Oakley - now have their own areas that utilise their own branded furniture within the stores: "It's a close relationship that allows us the flexibility to grow the business quickly as they do their own shop fits."

With a clear merchandising focus, Bite is able to compete aggressively against other active sports retailers, including direct competitor Free Spirit. "Our brand strategy is different in that we have a clearer merchandise focus," he says. "It's a clearer communication as to what we are offering when you walk into the store. Instead of being product led we're doing it by brand. It's got more of a fashion edge to it in terms of the way we merchandise.

"On the strategic side, our spend on a shop fit is 10 per cent of that of the competition, so we can afford to open 10 stores to their one. Within the floor space we're using table tops so we can allow emerging brands to come through the business. We're focused more on that this year."

Bite currently has four stores in Scotland, with Braehead shopping centre in Paisley providing the platform for the company's new flagship store. Bite also relocated within The Gyle Centre just after Christmas to a larger unit, increasing its store size from 1,500 to 2,000 sq ft. In addition, Bite, which can also currently be found at the Bon Accord centre in Aberdeen, has plans to open a new 2,000-sq ft store in Aberdeen's Academy shopping centre. Bite is also finalising heads of agreement in Edinburgh's Princes Mall at Waverley Station, while the relocation of Glasgow's Gordon Street branch to a high profile location in the city is also in the pipeline.

"Our new flagship store in Braehead launched the new larger Bite format featuring our first Vans in-store department," says McGowan. "This strategic partnership with Vans is helping to drive growth in a very competitive marketplace and this style of in-store department will feature in all future Bite stores.

"We're also Animal's largest retailer in the north and future plans include franchise opportunities with its stand-alone stores.

"Since the launch of Braehead in November, we've been approached by various national landlords with a view to rolling out this innovative product offer, in response to demand from educated consumers expecting an exciting and rewarding retail experience from every visit."

Now McGowan is planning to take his business to England and is focusing purely on shopping centre destinations. He's hoping to increase turnover from £1.5m to £3m this year.

"We're looking at the MetroCentre in Gateshead, and hopefully we can open three other new stores in 2008. As a small business we have to protect a bigger consumer brand awareness, so we're looking at Gateshead and then within a 100-mile radius of there."

Looking further ahead, McGowan would like to have 50 stores throughout the UK within the next five years and is considering corporate acquisitions as part of that. "We'll get ourselves up to 10 shops as quickly as we can and then we'll look at the acquisition of a larger company," he says. John Lane of CWM has been appointed to work with Bite on the acquisition schedule and future growth plans.

McGowan has no plans in terms of where he will aim to open after the new stores in the North-East. "Obviously, if something came up in London we'd take it, as it's a no-brainer," he says.

However, he does explain that ideally he wants to tap into an ABC1 demographic, ideally in town centres that aren't completely saturated with mainstream retailing.

"When they're not saturated we find a massive increase in our performance, but we don't shy away from competition," he stresses.

With plans to develop an on-line presence, in addition to opening new stores, Bite is certainly a retailer to watch out for.

Statistics

bite

Number of current stores: 4

Turnover: £1.5m (aims for £3m this year)

Store size looking for: 2-3,000 sq ft

Managing director: Mark McGowan

Website: http://www.bite-apparel.co.uk

Registered address: 34 Gordon Street, Glasgow, G1 3PU

Telephone: 0141 226 2220

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