Two years after Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles were taken over by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, both brands finally appear consigned to history.
The brands were bought by the Sports Direct and Harvey Nichols conglomerate in March 2024. Despite the websites of each brand being restored, Evans Cycles began a fire sale of Wiggle’s retail products.
road.cc has discovered the URLs to both Wiggle and Chain Reaction now re-direct to Evans Cycles, marking a formal end of the brand. road.cc has subsequently contacted the Frasers Group for comment on the decision to redirect the websites, as well as to ascertain when the decision was made.
The re-direction marks the final nail in the coffin on what was once one of Britain’s biggest bike companies, which in 2021 was sold to its predecessor parent company Signa Sports United (SSU) for £500 million. Two years later, Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles entered administration after SSU withdrew €150 million in previously guaranteed funding.
Its stock value was subsequently estimated at £22 million whilst its intellectual property was estimated at £4.5 million. However after an offer made to administrators was withdrawn in the final stages, Frasers Group swept in to buy the business for £3 million “on a gone concern basis”.
The sale was completed after administrators concluded a going concern sale “was not achievable due to the inability to right size the company’s operating fixed overheads”, particularly the extensive IT infrastructure which had been built “on the assumption that the company would achieve sustainable annual revenues in excess of £1bn”, a sum the company never came close to achieving.
All 447 of Wiggle CRC’s remaining employees were laid off by February 2024, whilst it subsequently emerged the brand made £10.4 million profit during administration. The Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles websites re-launched as a hollowed-out brands within the Frasers Group the following month, where they have remained until this year.
At the time of their takeover, one Frasers Group executive said, “Wiggle and Chain Reaction are well established names among riders in the UK and across Europe and the acquisition of both brands is consistent with our ambition to become the no.1 Sporting Goods retailer in Europe.
“It also brings with it the opportunity to work with respected partners through the highly admired, award-winning product lines that Wiggle and Chain Reaction had built. We are excited to explore partnerships with suppliers or distributors looking to expand their offering or an organisation looking to get a foothold in the market by leveraging some established names.”
Among the brands once owned by Wiggle and included in the deal were Vitus Bikes, DhB clothing, Lifeline Tools, and outdoor clothing range, Fohn. Those brands are still sold through Evans Cycles, which was bought by Frasers Group in 2018.
As Evans Cycles has become Frasers Group’s primary cycling outlet, it’s financial fortunes have improved, with the business recording profits of £388,000 in its latest set of accounts, following a total £34 million of losses recorded since 2021. However, the brand has continued to downsize, having closed eight stores and seen a drop in overall revenue compared to its accounts last year.
