Cycling UK Forum

Usual reasons!

Jonathan

Lots of mixed info in that article, Brexit given as one of the reasons, yet the German parent company did worse. Sales 30% down on last year, yet up 7% compared to 2019. Headline figures include huge capital costs and the write off from the acquisition. I don't know if cycle retail is doing any worse than any other non essential retail, or how Wiggle are doing within that, the article doesn't offer much of an insight.

It has never seemed to be the same since the takeover and merger with Wiggle, lots of bargains but all out of stock, not used them for years to be honest but their returns policy used to be very good, once purchased a bike off them and it came in a huge box with no packing but very surprised that their was no damage to the bike to be honest.

I didn't used to use Wiggle except as a last resort, their web pages used to take forever to load, and then when they finally appeared half the listings were discontinued items anyway. I'm surprised Covid is being blamed, the bike shop here was so inundated with online sales that they closed the doors to High Street sales.

There is quite a lot of comment about this at the moment online on some cycling industry websites and other cycling forums. I have not provided any links, because I do not know enough about this sort of thing to be able to judge who has the best understanding of what this all means - or might mean - for Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles.

slowster wrote: ↑20 Oct 2023, 12:20pm I have not provided any links, because I do not know enough about this sort of thing to be able to judge who has the best understanding of what this all means - or might mean - for Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles.

I find Bikebiz a reliable source for such information
https://bikebiz.com/wiggle-crc-to-enter ... o-reports/

Short interpretation is that Wiggle/CRC are not financially viable without the support of the parent company, which is no longer in a position to provide it. The administration is voluntary in so much that no third party is forcing it, however there isn't really an option if they'd otherwise be trading whilst insolvent.

The parent company which is in 'self-administration', Signa Sports United, also owns Bikester. Currently Bikester's german and french websites, www.fahrrad.de and www.bikester.fr, have banners stating that they are not accepting returns. The same applies to www.campz.de and www.campz.fr, which are also owned by Signa Sports United.

In contrast Wiggle and CRC appear to be trading normally, at least for now.

I'm baffled about what purpose this thread serves.

Could be giving us notice that there may be bargains to have in any money raising stock sale.

thirdcrank wrote: ↑20 Oct 2023, 3:21pm I'm baffled about what purpose this thread serves.

Bit of an odd comment in itself (if you don't mind me saying so)!

I'm interested as I do spend money with Wiggle/CRC and wasn't aware there may be issues.

TBaySimon wrote: ↑20 Oct 2023, 4:45pm

thirdcrank wrote: ↑20 Oct 2023, 3:21pm I'm baffled about what purpose this thread serves.

Bit of an odd comment in itself (if you don't mind me saying so)!

I'm interested as I do spend money with Wiggle/CRC and wasn't aware there may be issues.

Feel free to say what you think. I can see that if prominent players in the cycle trade may be in difficulty, then that's of interest to their customers. I was trying to make the point that to serve much purpose, it needs more than vague hints

It's a valid thread, but let's be honest, it doesn't belong in the "Does anyone know?" board. There's already enough off-topic stuff dumped in this board just because it's the top one in the list and people are too lazy to look for the right place.

Mind you, I'm not sure there is an appropriate board for this one...

"Does anyone know" would have been ok imo for a thread along the lines of "Does anyone know what's happening at Wiggle and Chain Reaction? There have been rumours etc"

That's a pretty contorted way of turning it into a pseudo-question, though. I refer you to the Does Anyone Know posting guidelines as formulated by the estimable thirdcrank.