One of Britain’s most respected children’s bike brands has a new owner – and it’s not one that will fill the cycling community with confidence.
Frasers Group, the retail empire controlled by Mike Ashley, has struck a deal to purchase Frog Bikes, buying the popular children’s brand out of administration. The acquisition price has not been disclosed.
Frog Bikes filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators in early February, with co-founder Jerry Lawson describing the move as “precautionary” at the time. FRP Advisory was formally appointed on 19 February.
The brand, founded in 2013 by Jerry and Shelley Lawson, cited Brexit, rising employment costs, and post-pandemic supply chain disruption as factors behind its financial difficulties. The company had returned to profit of £200,000 in the year to February 2024, making the collapse all the more frustrating to observers.
We’ve had Frog Bikes in for review over the years and have always come away impressed. Their approach resulted in some genuinely excellent products for spriogs. The brand has sold more than half a million bikes and operates from a 120,000 sq ft facility in Pontypool, Wales.
Which makes the landing place all the more concerning.
According to an email sent to suppliers, Frog’s intellectual property, brand and bike stock have all been sold to the new owner. Sadly, the brand has been unable to secure financial means to continue manufacturing within the UK. The Pontypool factory — a genuine point of British manufacturing pride — is gone. The email noted: “It is, of course, disappointing that we were unable to find an investor to take on the factory and continue operations as they were.”
Frasers Group is no stranger to the cycling world. Ashley’s group acquired Evans Cycles in 2018, before purchasing Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles in 2024, picking up own brands including Vitus and Pinnacle in the process. The track record of those acquisitions does not make for comfortable reading. The Wiggle CRC acquisition resulted in all 447 employees losing their jobs, while the Evans Cycles deal moved all remaining staff onto zero-hour contracts.
The official line from Frasers is upbeat, naturally. Evans Cycles Managing Director Robert Bentley said the acquisition “strengthens our premium children’s bike range, while giving the brand the backing, retail expertise and digital capability of the wider Frasers Group.”
Whether that translates to a suitable level of care and investment – or whether Frog quietly becomes another label on a Sports Direct shelf – remains to be seen. we’ve all watched Ashley’s empire absorb established names before, and the results have rarely been cause for celebration.
For now, if you’ve been eyeing up a Frog for your sprog, there’s no immediate reason to panic. But the longer-term future of the brand as a genuine, product-led children’s specialist is far from certain.
Wasn’t there a rule that we didn’t post links without a comment/context?
I don’t think that counts for STW posting their own articles to be fair..
Hope it doesn’t go the way of everything else he’s acquired!
Mike Ashley is pretty much never good news but this one has potential to work out well. They might drive the brand into the ground but alternatively they might make use of the IP and actually make decent bikes that are easily available on the highstreet, you never know.
Oh, my sweet summer child…. 😉
The Ridgeback that I bought for my grandson recently was easily as good quality as a Frog, if not better and I think a more reasonable price!
Pinnacle & Vitus, albeit with a reduced range are still going when they wouldn’t have been under their former owners.
I mean, I dislike Big Mike as much as the rest of us, but it’s hardly like he steals brands away from us. They are usually put in that position well before he buys them; he steps in when it’s typically either him or nothing. Frog will either disappear into distant memory, he’ll bugger it up and lose a load of money, or they’ll just churn out existing models and sell them in Evans/Sports Direct.
Funny to see people Ridgebacking Frog bikes just like Frog owners used to Frog Islabikes owners 🙂
I’d completely missed that Frog was on a shaky peg, which makes this even more surprising.
Shaky peg indeed. I have a bit of a suspicion that the kids’ bike market is in a bit of bother more significant than the overall bike market. Kids don’t trash bikes that much, and the top end ones (Frog, Isla etc) hold their value well because most get quite lightly used by riders who are little (and not that strong) themselves, and who grow out of them quickly. So long as it’s an awesome colour, the latest tech or wheel size trends don’t make a huge difference either. The result is a second hand market crammed with good bikes in (generally) good condition, and the market is saturated.
I assume that he’s just bought the old stock and IP and that none of the staff will be employed except maybe to shift said stock. Just another ghoul out to strip the bones.
And ‘kids don’t trash bikes much’ .. I know what you mean but also LOL .. ‘yeah not much’ : )
You’ve probably got a bit of a better view than I, Jameso! I’m just very grateful that Islabikes and later Frog were turning out cracking bikes at the same time as our children were moving up from a toddlebike. They’re both keen riders now, and that’s likely because they got to get on a ‘proper’ bike very early on in life.
Most likely^^
I walked into the local Evans a few months back, out of curiosity and yep you can still buy a “Pinnacle Arkose”, aside from the paint scheme and much cheaper groupset the actual frame looks to be pretty close to what you would have bought a decade or so earlier (which wasn’t a bad frame at the time, or even now TBF).
They don’t kill the brands, just hack them back to being the cut price, in-house brand option, sold alongside side mid-tier Trek and SBC products. Basically the same as Apollo/Carerra in Halfords, or Rockrider/Btwinn/Triban in Decathlon, this isn’t unique to Mike’s retailers.
It is interesting, there must still be someone within the group advising on these purchases. Someone who knows the market and companies and recognises the value in specific brands. It’s just that they’re working in an organisation that doesn’t do any real development.
Here’s a question, assuming the same Frog bikes pop up at about the same prices in Evans, would you recommend them to any mates, with kids, looking for a new option (once they’ve turned their nose up at used). I’m not sure I would steer someone away from Frog just because of Mike’s ownership.
Shame.
Their manufacturing kit is up for auction (no bikes so I assume that’s all going out through Evans et. al.). There’s a nice Park Tools station if anyone has a monster workshop!
https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/gordonbrothersailtd/catalogue-id-gbai10332
No bad thing, it’s not like kids bikes suffer the same niche proliferation and standards attrition of grown-up bikes.
Sorry little Tarquin absolutely must have a new Isla gravel bike, and his Specialized Rockhoper isn’t even boost! How will he know if the trails are alive or not?
I work in a bike charity and we see a lot of Islabikes that have been ridden into the ground!
Which in a roundabout way is more annoying because the pedals/BB/grips etc aren’t of the shelf parts!