Wiggle to buy Chain Reaction Cycles, it seems

Samuel D · Post by **Samuel D** » 10 Feb 2016, 8:49pm

Reported here and elsewhere.

What do we make of this?

On the one hand, losing the competition between them may harm customers (via increased prices, etc.).

On the other hand, fractionally less competition may help the rest of the bicycle trade, which in the long-run may actually benefit customers.

Probably neither of these effects will be large, but you never know.

Thoughts?

horizon · Post by **horizon** » 10 Feb 2016, 8:54pm

From that article:

Chain Reaction Cycles sprang from a small bike shop in the tiny town of Ballyclare in 1989. The shop is now a barber’s shop, a very small barber’s shop. This was the second shop. The first, started in 1984, was Ballynure Cycles, an even smaller operation. The business was founded by George and Janice Watson – their first sale was a chain link costing 11p. When, in 1998, the business moved to Ballyclare the decision was made to change the firm’s name, and Chain Reaction Cycles was born. The website was launched the following year.

Almost 40 percent of CRC’s sales come from outside the EU, as dealers in Australia and America know only too well. In October 2015 Wiggle reported an 11.5 percent rise in sales, with a turnover of £179m.

Wiggle and Chain Reaction have been fighting head to head for many years, with Wiggle moving ahead of Chain Reaction in 2013 when sales at the family-owned firm dropped six percent to £145m. The Watson family is said to have a personal fortune of £200m.

Seems like opening a bike shop might be a good idea - who says they don't pay!?

Elizabethsdad · Post by **Elizabethsdad** » 10 Feb 2016, 8:56pm

After a bad customer experience with Wiggle I have vowed not to shop with them again. I have got a fair bit of stuff from CRC over the years, but just as much from elsewhere because they didn't always have what I was looking for. So I doubt it will be the end of the world for me or most others.

Sweep · Post by **Sweep** » 10 Feb 2016, 9:14pm

Sod this. I very much hope that this doesn't happen. I have not used wiggle much for a fair long while. Not only did their prices increase a while ago but i well remember some shenanginans with some sort of priority order "optional" premium charge where you were never sure if you had actually bought something, even though it was shown as in stock, as some favoured customer could apparently come along and claim it.

I never got a straight answer on this from wiggle so i pretty much gave up on them. I am trying to buy bike bits, not get immersed in some sort of speculative futures market in sprockets.

Samuel D · Post by **Samuel D** » 10 Feb 2016, 10:04pm

Sweep wrote:I am trying to buy bike bits, not get immersed in some sort of speculative futures market in sprockets.

You got a good guffaw out of me with that.

I’ve had no major problems with either Wiggle or Chain Reaction. Neither do I have any loyalty – I just choose the cheaper one. It’s amazing how often these two UK companies can sell me something for less than a French store, despite shipping to Paris.

That said, these two giants often don’t have the weird little bits and pieces I want.

Des49 · Post by **Des49** » 10 Feb 2016, 10:40pm

This would seem a great shame to me. I went off Wiggle when they were taken over by a private equity firm or something like that.

Still use both companies, but CR generally win with generally very prompt service with no postage charges. While Wiggle charge me postage and have a strange, suspect feature where the price changes when you input your location, excluding VAT and postage.

Also hope there is no impact on CR staff, where employment must be quite hard to get.

Heltor Chasca · Post by **Heltor Chasca** » 11 Feb 2016, 6:52am

Sadness! I stopped using Wiggle due to repeated mess ups. CR was a descent alternative. A disappointing move, but that's modern business for you.

Did I tell you I've got organically fed and reared chicken eggs for sale at my gate? £1.20 for 6. (It covers their food and that's it)

Vetus Ossa · Post by **Vetus Ossa** » 11 Feb 2016, 7:34am

Heltor Chasca wrote:

Did I tell you I've got organically fed and reared chicken eggs for sale at my gate? £1.20 for 6. (It covers their food and that's it)

Could you do mail order on them and enclose a little packet of Haribo please?

Heltor Chasca · Post by **Heltor Chasca** » 11 Feb 2016, 7:47am

Vetus Ossa wrote:
Heltor Chasca wrote:

Did I tell you I've got organically fed and reared chicken eggs for sale at my gate? £1.20 for 6. (It covers their food and that's it)

Could you do mail order on them and enclose a little packet of Haribo please?

[emoji3] Now that's modern business. Given the chance, the chooks would love a bit of Haribo introduced into their business model! I feel guilty if the eggs are at the gate are older than 3 days. But I found out that supermarket egg suppliers have 30 days to get the eggs to the warehouses, the supermarkets have 30 days to sell them, then the consumer adds the 'eat by' days to that total. So we are talking up to 3 month old eggs. Fresh eggs? Meh.

Ahem. Thread drift. Sorry.

Post by **Vorpal** » 11 Feb 2016, 8:18am

I've ordered bits from either a couple of times, but TBH, with one exception, I could just as easily have gotten my purchases anywhere.

I say good on the family that started CRC. I hope that they enjoy the money. It's nice to hear when someone can do something like that successfully. Selling out to bigger business is probably a retirement strategy.

Good luck to them.

p.s. I used to buy fresh eggs at someone's gate

I haven't found anyone like that, here. I may have to get some chickens.

mjr · Post by **mjr** » 11 Feb 2016, 9:20am

Vorpal wrote:I say good on the family that started CRC. I hope that they enjoy the money. It's nice to hear when someone can do something like that successfully. Selling out to bigger business is probably a retirement strategy.

It's one possible strategy, but it must be awful to see vulture capitalists come in and wreck what you spent years creating.

I wonder if they even explored selling it to the workers or customers.

Brucey · Post by **Brucey** » 11 Feb 2016, 9:27am

I'm somewhat disappointed at this turn of events. Mind you, I thought 'something was up' in that for years CRC have seemingly bought up old stock and then sold it on at pretty good prices; hence such things as 7s cassette hubs for a fiver, various rims etc. In the last year or so such things have just about disappeared from CRCs stock, indicating perhaps that whoever used to go and buy such items had probably given up doing so.

My experience is that both firms have been capable of messing up in various ways. Wiggle probably did better than CRC at attracting new customers and finding ways to retain them, e.g. lots of magazine ads, discounts for big spenders, e-mail offers and so forth. By contrast (although they did spend money on sponsoring TV shows....) CRC appeared to cut their press advertising budget in recent years; OK it is probably fifteen years but it doesn't seem all that long ago (to me) that MBUK had a two-page CRC spread in it , with a close-typed stock listing.

Back then if you had a query on the phone, someone would (audibly) scurry off into the stock area and check the part for you, and when they said 'I'll get it in the post to you tonight' you knew they would give it their personal attention. Those days are long gone, more's the pity; as CRC grew the chances of getting stuff so promptly definitely declined IME.

The only certain thing is change....

cheers

AndyBSG · Post by **AndyBSG** » 11 Feb 2016, 9:43am

With these being the two 'Big Names' i'm not sure that merging is going to be good for customers from a monopoly viewpoint.

Personally, I have no loyalty to either and am just as likely to use CRC or Wiggle as I am Ribble or Tredz and it's always price that's the clincher for me.

Out of interest, other than those mentioned above who else do people use for parts?

mjr · Post by **mjr** » 11 Feb 2016, 9:50am

AndyBSG wrote:Out of interest, other than those mentioned above who else do people use for parts?

First choice is always Anglia Motor Cycles, Richardson's and Wilco Fast Fit (all local shops) then Edinburgh Bicycle, SJS, Planet X, Winstanley, Star, Spa, Laxzo(maybe misspelt), Evans and maybe one or two I've forgotten.

Heltor Chasca · Post by **Heltor Chasca** » 11 Feb 2016, 10:00am

Vorpal wrote:p.s. I used to buy fresh eggs at someone's gate I haven't found anyone like that, here. I may have to get some chickens.

Do it! They are such a delight and really low maintenance. I've got a brood a few weeks away from hatching. With these chicks I'm going to see if any of them show any trainable characteristics. I'd like to train one to ride on the front rack. I had a Persian bird last year that was keen to do this. Sadly I had to euthanise her due to illness.

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