Cycle 360 celebrates International Women’s Day

[pictured above: from L to R – Sacha Horsthuis, Toni Callin and Anna Karczmarz]

Cycle 360 is celebrating International Women’s Day by helping you learn a bit more about its incredible workforce.

With a number of women at the helm of Cycle 360’s operations, you’d be mistaken in thinking these industries have never been male dominated.

Co-owner and Head of Marketing, Sacha Horsthuis works alongside other inspiring women leaders: Anna Karczmarz as the café and events manager, Antonia Callin as the head chef and Holly James as Cycle 360’s Bikeshop Sales Assistant.

Both hospitality and bicycle retail industries are so heavily male-dominated, globally that Cycle 360 is in a unique position with women leading the way.

Looking at both industries, there’s a gender gap, but particularly within kitchens, which sees an 80%  to 20%, male to female ratio within leading head chef roles.  And within bicycle retail, it’s common knowledge that it’s rare you find a woman in the sales department or as a mechanic working in a bikeshop.

Meet Anna, Cycle 360’s Cafe and Events Manager.

Anna has lived on the Isle of Man for two decades, moving from Poland originally.

Even with English being her second language, it has not stopped her fight to be at the top of her industry as a team leader in one of the busiest day-time and private hire venues on Island.

Anna is a force to be reckoned with; she started her career at Cycle 360 as Cafe Assistant, quickly moving up to Supervisor, then onto Manager and now onto Events Manager too.  Anna loves working with customers, keeping busy and always strives for ways to improve the Cycle 360 cafe experience.

Outside of Cycle 360, Anna is super social, she’s known to be the most loyal friend and enjoys a glass of vino (or two!).

Meet Toni, Cycle 360’s Head Chef.

Toni joined the team in Summer 2022 after moving back to the Isle of Man from Canada. Toni’s route into becoming a chef isn’t your typical one though, as she originally studied law at university! Since childhood, she’s always loved cooking.  This started out as baking cakes and experimenting with food as well as helping her dad make a Sunday roast every week.

Although she always wanted to become a chef, she was encouraged to head to university first. So, she moved to Cardiff to study Law but spent a lot of time working in restaurants and loved it.

After university, she headed to Canada to attend culinary school in Ottawa and then moved to Vancouver. Her role as a chef in Canada was within a health food restaurant, which had lots of vegan influences. She says working with vegan dishes is good fun as it helps you to get creative and shows that there is actually so much you can do without having to use animal products!

Meet Holly, Cycle 360’s Bikeshop Sales Assistant

Originally from Preston in the UK, Holly joined Team 360 in July 2022.  After visiting the Island on many occasions over the years and coming here for holidays since she was a little girl, she knew it would become a home from home straight away!

Through her love of cycling, and knowing some Manx folk, she was scouted when Cycle 360 needed a new Bikeshop Sales Asisstant to join the team!

Holly was working at a UK-based performance bike brand prior to joining Team 360 but it involved more behind the scenes work of the bike shop – supporting mechanics and tinkering with bikes here and there.  Holly says she’s happier being customer facing.

She believes that for many, cycling is more than just a hobby – it’s a lifestyle and life changing activity to participate in. For others it may be a way to grow their confidence, or to aid recovery after an illness – so, for her to to play even a small part in someone’s journey, she says, is incredibly rewarding.

Holly is one of the very few females in a bike shop too and says it has been wonderful to share a women’s perspective on cycling, and on products such as bike saddles, as bike shops can be notoriously intimidating places for women.

Meet Sacha, Cycle 360’s Co-Owner and Head of Marketing

Starting out in the field of marketing, Sacha met her husband Mark Horsthuis in 2015 when their stars aligned one Christmas and Mark’s business idea, coupled with Sacha’s passion, enthusiasm and branding expertise was the perfect match for making Cycle 360 happen!

A keen cyclist herself, Sacha hosted the Isle of Man’s first women’s cycling Q&A in 2022, which she’s extremely proud of and hopes to build from.  The purpose of the event, she says, was to bring a range of voices together to share stories, be inspired and identify solutions to the barriers facing women in cycling.

Extremely driven, Sacha’s mission has always been to absorb and learn as much as possible from others around her, to step outside of her comfort zone, innovate and to grow professionally and personally!