In the news today

CRC sales up 14% year on year! to £155m – pre tax profits down 91% to £861,000 due to “substantial additional overheads”, margins @32%

Pity all the £’sss went into a poor website and not invested in customer service

Shame……

It’s the Ryanir effect – you take the supercheap prices but think its just extra for free, then moan when you don’t get BA service 🙄

You could always support a lbs, no?

You could always support a lbs, no?

No, if I got all my parts from my lbs and had them fitted there I couldn’t afford to ride.

Postage costs gone through the roof due to Royal Mail getting ready for privitisation!

I’d rather buy less and support my lbs. At least that way my money is staying local rather than lining share holders pockets.

Turnover = vanity, profit = sanity
No point turning over huge amounts if your not making a descent % profit

32% is an awesome profit margin for a business that size.

, then moan when you don’t get BA service

CRC have some of the best service in the business. Who were you even addressing your comment at?

I tend to get a ~10% discount from my LBS which brings prices – usually – close enough to CRC that I don’t mind paying a bit more to know what I’m getting.

I keep buying stuff online and then finding it’s a bit weird. Like some Cinelli bar tape (not from CRC, but another well-known company) which snapped when I was trying to wrap it.

I ended up going to my LBS and buying some there which was went on fine (and was nicer).

The numbers don’t make sense in the first post.

I use to buy a lot from my local LBS and get 10% discount but now I have to pay to join their VIP club to get discount.

But I use Wiggle more now days.

CRC have some of the best service in the business. Who were you even addressing your comment at?

In the whole CS industry – they picked up a gong this week.

The numbers don’t make sense in the first post.

Taken from the Sunday Times Business Section this morning…..

He’s right though, £155m turnover and £861,000 profit.

The latter is not 32% of the former.

So perhaps margin refers to the proft margin before other overheads are taken into account?

Less likely the new website than sponsoring the ToB and making their own TV show though, IMO.

In the whole CS industry – they picked up a gong this week.

Indeed, I find dealing with CRC almost as nice as John Lewis or First Direct. Credit where it’s due.

Margin is such a wooly term as there is no definite definition, it can be net or gross of so many things, plus they can move costs around and ‘turn’ cost of sale figures into overheads to make the margin look better etc.

£861k on £155m is approx 0.5% gross margin (as in £861k / £155m).

I buy from whoever is offering the best price, whether it be online or LBS. Sadly my local bike shop has yet to have received much of my custom.