“We couldn’t find any bikes to hire,” says Cantal Bakker. “I was on holiday in Marrakech in 2014, and my boyfriend suggested we rent bikes so we could explore a bit further than the usual tourist areas. In the end, we borrowed bikes from some locals.” It was rare to see people on bikes in Marrakech, Bakker explains. As they rode along, people would sometimes shout Pikala! — the local word for “bike”.
Jump forward six years and Bakker now runs a business in Marrakech that does more than just rent out bikes. It is responsible for numerous social initiatives, many of which help to educate young Moroccans. Situated in Marrakech’s medina, Pikala Bikes is housed in an old building painted in the usual sun-baked Marrakech pastel orange colour. It is next to a busy road with a never-ending stream of cars and scooters. An orange, white and blue metal sign above the open-fronted entrance reads “Pikala Bicycle Atelier”. Next to it hangs an orange sign bearing the word “Education” written in both English and Arabic. Together, they represent Bakker’s vision.
On returning to the Netherlands in 2014, inspired by her week in Marrakech, the then 24-year-old Bakker kept returning to the same idea: to set up a bike-hire business in Marrakech. But she had no intention of settling for a typical tourist venture. Driven by enthusiasm and more than a little idealism, Bakker wanted her business to have the community at its heart. Profit wasn’t her main aim — success was, and that meant providing education, training and opportunity for young Moroccans.
Getting the business moving
Bakker spent a year creating her business plan — reshaping, rethinking and reimagining it until she got it right. She had had experience teaching refugees how to ride bikes back home in The Hague, but this was on an entirely different scale. Using €9,000 of her savings and €4,000 from crowdfunding, Bakker opened Pikala Bikes in 2016. Pikala is a non-profit organization, and has received assistance from organizations such as the TUI Care Foundation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands and a small number of international businesses.
Bakker bought second-hand bikes in the Netherlands and transported them to Marrakech, an effort that Bakker says was much more expensive than she had hoped. Then there were the authorities in Marrakech. “I couldn’t get people to understand exactly what I wanted to do.” Bakker wanted her business to have a business arm and a foundation arm: the former hiring bikes to tourists, the latter pursuing social aims.
Eventually, she was able to find a building for her venture — without a contract, which puts the business in a precarious situation. And ever since the authorities realized that Pikala Bikes was never going to be a cash cow, they have tried to take the building back. “It’s been a constant fight,” which is now seemingly on pause because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bakker hopes an election in 2021 will bring a change in local government and, with it, a change in attitude.
Your first impressions of the Pikala building stick with you. Rather than a comfortable, modern business environment, think workshop. Rather than business people offering the occasional word to colleagues between meetings, think a community of people, working, talking and eating together. The staff’s enthusiasm for what they do is obvious. Community and sustainability are at the heart of Bakker’s philosophy, and the people who work at Pikala share that world view.
Bakker is no simple idealist, however. She says she knows that she has sometimes seemed “a bit too direct in meetings” with local authorities. At times, intercultural challenges have required patience, at other times, sheer perseverance. As Bakker has proved, however, this does not have to be prohibitive for potential foreign business investors. Morocco is rated 53 out of 190 economies in the World Bank “ease of doing business” rankings, one place behind Hungary and ahead of Italy.
Bakker knows from experience the fundamental importance of having a local expert on board, someone on the ground who knows the culture, language and business environment. Bakker pours praise on her local expert, who was indispensable in establishing Pikala and helping her lay stable foundations for long-term success. “She is highly intelligent, a brilliant negotiator and knows what to say and when,” says Bakker.
A sustainable future
Sturdy Dutch bikes (orange, of course) stand inside and outside the entrance to the Pikala building, which is partly open to the elements. Metal-framed shelves hold bike baskets and helmets; all carry the Pikala logo. “Sustainability is important, and almost everything we have is recycled,” Bakker explains. Bikes for sale hang from walls, as does a vast collection of bike tools, increasing the feeling that this is a place of work. But there is also a comfortable, relaxed feel to the place.
At the back is a small office and a kitchen, where the daily communal meals are prepared. “We provided training for our cook, in everything from hygiene to the types of meals to make, which are increasingly vegetarian,” says Bakker. The meals seem simple and are certainly delicious. Loubia (stewed beans), zaalouk (rice, sweetcorn and chermoula cauliflower), avocado salad and roasted vegetables are typical dishes served with the ubiquitous tea, poured from a tremendous height for honoured guests.
My visit to Pikala Bikes was before the coronavirus pandemic began, and the place was a buzz of activity, languages, and comings and goings. Despite the ongoing stress of not knowing whether Pikala Bikes would be allowed to remain in its building, Bakker’s attempt to create a business that is both entrepreneurial and social has been a success. She and her colleagues have trained young Moroccans in bicycle mechanics and in how to give well-informed city tours (including in English), and have given them a steady income. Perhaps most impressive of all, they have empowered a number of the city’s young women.
Since then, Bakker tells me by telephone that Morocco has put very strict hygiene measures in place, including calling a state of emergency in March. “Even the army was on the streets to ensure regulations were adhered to,” she says. Despite the pandemic, her work carries on, though bike tours have at times been out of the question. She made the entire fleet of bikes available to the city at the beginning of the pandemic, gave advice on how to stay safe and designed a social-distancing concept for the Bab El Khemis second-hand market.
On her return from her Marrakech holiday in 2014, Cantal Bakker discussed her vision of a bike-based business in the city with her mother. “Why Morocco? You don’t know the religion, you don’t know the culture and you don’t even know how to fix a bike,” her mother replied. “Most people reacted like that at the beginning,” says Bakker.
They don’t any longer. The learning curve continues to be a steep one, and she knows there will be many more bumps and setbacks along the way. But with the help of numerous young Moroccans — and lots of bikes — Bakker has succeeded in creating a community-based business that educates, empowers and inspires.