Wiggle Chain Reaction put up for sale by administrators, as expert warns collapse is “just the start of big changes” across bike industry

Without having looked at the books, if the company either had a lot of floating-rate debt or debt that matured and needed refinancing then the return to a normal-ish interest rate environment could easily make up a lot of that loss. 

1/3rd of it was costs related to Signas takeover, they spent 14million on systems efficiencies alone, the rest I think is just they weren't as profitable as maybe we thought.

Signa settled alot of existing debts in the takeover and provided funding via loans but that shouldn't have been an issue in itself for a business trading well. For all the stuff about covid their UK sales were quoted as higher than pre covid, and they still made a loss.

And they're still sending out emails encouraging you to buy stuff, with no mention of the administration part.

I bought something from Wiggle last week (on credit card), it arrived without issue. So for now, they are functioning.

A lot of lifeline is sold as "Trivio" and other brands as you say ...even seen the air blast track pump with a big cycle name on it....  we wait and see what comes of Wiggle... but I'd say it'll carry on in some form or another.

boardmanrider wrote:

The impact of CRC potentially closing will be felt in Belfast in more ways than one. I have it on good authority that the orders sent from the distribution center in Northern Ireland accounts for well ove 25% of the total deliveries managed by Royal Mail and carriers. Its concievable that this could lead to job cuts there.

Wiggle and CRC combined their distribution centre to Wolverhampton many years ago (Wikipedia says 2017).

Well the rumours were Mike Ashley was keen on buying them, at a knock down price, so the jury may be out on them finding a better owner yet.

I'm sure Ashley (and many others) will be looking at Wiggle right now. I dont like his sports shops, but you can't deny hes very sucessful at what he does. Frasers have a tonne of cash and would easily be able to keep WiggleCRC going in the meantime. Anyone would be a far better owner than current parent company SSU right now, who are effectivley going bankrupt.

rumlad wrote:

but you can't deny hes very sucessful at what he does.

Peeling the very flesh off a dying brand so he can sell it on.

haha yeah hes very sucessful at doing that. To be fair though he never really sells anything on, he just buys and adds to his long list of "assets"

rumlad wrote:

haha yeah hes very sucessful at doing that. To be fair though he never really sells anything on, he just buys and adds to his long list of "assets"

You mean he adds their technological and cultural distinctiveness to his own?

It could go a number of ways if Frasers Group rake over the ashes and pick up what's left. Hopefully they'll realise that there's a state of the art distribution centre at WiggleCRC and not roll it into Evans & Sports Direct. If they leave things as they are (other than rolling back to the old website) and can balance the books, I'd be happy.

There used to be a brilliant bike shop not far from me. Not quite LBS as it was 28 miles away, but it was a destination shop several times a year, due to massive floor space, cafe area, great brands, shoe fitting, bike fitting, and even had a resistance pool for testing wetsuits (triathlon not my bag but good for those that do it). It was called TriUK in Yeovil. It was sold to Ashley and initially for a few years, run at arms length, in fact they went on to replicate the format and open other TriUK stores in other parts of the country. So far so good.

Then they acquired Evans, and thought it would be good to roll TriUK into that (they're just bikes shops right?) Nothing you wanted in stock, a problematic install of the House of Fraser stock & EPOS system which meant that the price you thought you were going to pay will have changed by the time the item was scanned - assuming that the system recognised the barcode in the first place. Once they finished ruining Evans, the assimilation of TriUK started. The place that once sold custom build Cervelo P5X to triathletes from the nearby RNAS, now had BSOs from Sports Direct greeting you at the front of the store.

It's now no more, it's just simply "Evans Yeovil", I went back in the summer, empty workshop, no mechanics, no cafe, nothing you would want to buy.

Yes indeed job losses are always an awful thing to happen, especially in these uncertain times.

Perhaps the 'keen cyclists' who work for Wiggle can apply to their local LBS for a job......

Oh dear, they can't as the LBS had to close due to the likes of Wiggle and not being supported by the new generation of 'cyclists'.

I have been in the bike industry for decades and have seen how much the industry has changed, mostly for the good with family cycling, commuting and electric bike sales going through the roof.

But, there are the idiots who buy everything online and 'shock, horror!' the local LBS is ACTUALLY going to charge them to fit said parts. A lot are incompatable anyway and they have to pay RRP for the correct parts!

And there are some to come in on a busy Saturday with a bike that is the same as you were trying to sell (in stock) to them but 'got it cheaper online'. They wonder why you don't drop everything to fix their mechanical/puncture etc as you have a shop full of people and they bought the bike in a box.

They don't understand why the workshop turnaround is two weeks or more. Perhaps it is because we have a good reputation and people trust us?

Two bikes  in a week recently with the pedals threaded onto the wrong cranks.....

Do Wiggle build wheels? Do Wiggle advise customer of the best traffic-free cycling famiy routes? Do Wiggle get someone who hasn't ridden for fifty years riding again on an ebike?

Support your LBS. The money we get paid is crap, but for a lot of us it is our life and our passion.

Rant over.

Well said. I had the very same conversation this week with my LBS. Almost every day he gats someone in who has bought something online and they expect him to drop everything to fit it there and then, after all it'll only take ten minutes to fit. What? You're actually going to charge me for fitting it?

The other cheeky move I've heard is of people (not anyone they know) who go into LBS, asks to price match a price they've seen online. Dealer feels obliged to do it, even though the margin is negligible because the alternative is losing the sale and also that person's possible future custom, however unlikely that might be.

On the other side to that, I don't go to my nearest LBS any more primarily because of their attitude. I'm not a professional mechanic, so sometimes I don't know what to do and sometimes I think I do and it turns out I was wrong. 

I'm happy to pay for their labour and expertise, and I'm happy to wait my turn to be seen and to be told they won't get to the work for a few days. I'm a customer like anyone else, I've no reason to expect special treatment. 

I'm not happy though to be ignored because someone's mate has just come in, nor to be openly eye-rolled for not being a great mechanic: if I was, I'd do the work myself. The final straw was being charged £150 for setting up derailleurs and cabling, then finding out the FD was clipping the crank on every turn. 

Things are cheaper off the internet, we don't do price-fixing any more and so LBSs need to find a niche to compete in. Service seems obvious: fit and fix stuff for people, and don't be a dick about it. Get someone in to do customer service if your mechanics are better with bikes than people.

I'm not sure there's much point in selling much beyond the sorts of emergency purchases people can't wait for (tubes, tyres etc). If you've not got masses of stock (especially bikes), you can work from smaller premises, or at least have a smaller shop-front and more workshop space.

There seem to be a few places near me (south London) specialising in repairs/services and not selling much stuff. I haven't tried them, but it seems a good way of adapting and keeping mechanics in employment.