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I'm not surprised, when Wiggle put their annual results out they said they were concentrating warehousing in Wolverhampton.
I blame Wiggle. 👿
Knew this would happen as soon as Wiggle took over. Another bike shop gone in Northern Ireland. Are there any left?
Sloane Cycles. Ordered a Limar road helmet from them years ago.
Obvious consolidation move once Wiggle took over .
Shame for the employees but should come as no surprise .
Damn shame.
On a selfish note, I really hope they keep CRC's excellent customer service dept.
Another bike shop gone in Northern Ireland.
There's still going to be 275 people based in NI apparently... Not that that makes it any better for the folk losing their jobs.
Inevitable really though as soon as Wiggle bought them out 🙁
Sad to see but inevitable once Wriggle got there claws into them probably end up like sports direct for the work force zero hour contracts and slavish work patterns.
Royal mail will probably lose out to a zero hour courier company sad to see CRC RIP
Sad to see but inevitable once Wriggle got there claws into them probably end up like sports direct for the work force zero hour contracts and slavish work patterns.
Wasn't that what CRC was anyway? Seem to recall they were not the most highly regarded employer.
Its not loss of a shop either is it? or are they closing the shop too?
There is now vacant warehouse space so maybe one of the people made redundant could use their contacts to set up another online sales setup.
Though I thought we all agreed online sales were the devil, its so hard to keep up sometimes.
Can't remember the last time I ordered something from CRC or wiggle.
Other outlets are available.
That's nice for the people losing their livelihood to know.
Looks like Mcconvey Cycles will be getting more trade, great local bike shop, with that personal touch.
Though I thought we all agreed online sales were the devil, its so hard to keep up sometimes.
Your not wrong, it's getting harder to know what to get indignant about these days.
Its easier to simply object to everything and everyone, and just come up with the reasoning later...
[quote=chakaping ]That's nice for the people losing their livelihood to know.
what about all the shops that CRC and wiggle put out of business?
Maybe we should focus on the environmental good that this will do? Surely we can all agree it is far better for the environment with the reduction in 'pointlessly' shipping goods in and out of Northern Ireland.
We are all tree hugging anti car cyclists after all 😆
People loosing their job always sucks, regardless of the circumstances.
That aside I hope wiggle dont ruin crc, they have always seemed a bit road biased, too expensive with a terrible website, hence Ive not used them for years.
We are all tree hugging anti car cyclists after all
im not 🙂
they have always seemed a bit road biased,
And I wonder why they bought CRC?
From a guy who owns a bike shop, genuinely very sad to see this happening!
CRC have always been the best of the "bad bunch" so to speak. It's hard to match their prices sometimes, but they don't take the piss on new and in demand products unlike many of the others, and all their staff are keen riders.
Wiggle epitomise all that is wrong with the bike trade, and sadly they're the ones making all the money! A tax write off for a venture capital firm (so forget the fact they buy in bulk and sell it cheap, they pay no sodding tax to speak of!) staffed mainly by agency and/or people who have little or no interest in cycling. The buy up fledgling brands cheaply left right and centre to minimise the chance of competition to their own brands, and they get preferential treatment from all the suppliers for the latest new kit despite the reps protestation to the contrary...
Very sorry for those directly affected by the job losses.
I hope they have done their maths correctly as I was expecting Wiggle to move its operations to NI and not the other way around. Warehousing and staff will be much cheaper in NI than mainland UK and Im sure they could have got some tax breaks for staying, so I guess the shipping costs must have swung it. Just sounds a bit odd given nearshoring is normally always more cost effective than onshoring.
Also given the CRC service and support is superior to Wiggle, I really would question the maths.
Real shame.
Why would shipping costs swing it Royal Mail are one price whatever distance within the uk!
Wasn't CRC a family business, set up and/or grown with lots of govt money...grew hugely then sold yeah?
Why would shipping costs swing it Royal Mail are one price whatever distance within the uk!
Agree for uk to uk post, but what about sending abroad from NI to Europe and afar... that and inbound stock wherever that comes from?
Mboy, you clearly don't know anyone who works for Wiggle with that comment about them having no interest in cycling!
Oh great. They are moving their warehouse to the UK to help meet the demands blah blah. Don't see how that will benefit customers (like me) in Ireland. Guess we are in the minority for the big corporation so will have put up with longer delivery times coming from the UK. I really liked crc, can see me shopping around more now, using the Germans etc.
most of us dont care where the stock is stored or comes from just the price,good customer services, and they have it in stock and available within days.
Wiggle also have a huge depot in stoke on trent iirc, they closed the down south one down, chaper oop north, and more staff and better communications available.
the go to back in the day and they were first on the block.
You would order something one day and get it the next day without fail!
not ordered off them in years!
not ordered off wiggle in years either and i live about 5 miles from their depot!
cynic-alWasn't CRC a family business, set up and/or grown with lots of govt money...grew hugely then sold yeah?
Oh yeah. Good christian family too. With impeccable christian morals. Like treating their staff like shit and laying hundreds of them off just before Christmas.
Whilst this is not really fair or directed at those poor buggers out of work now
this has to be some kind of price shagging Karma, Ironic that a company renowned for maybe contributing a wee tad to the demise of many a local bike shop because no one could pricematch and hope to put food on the table, then finds themselves culling their own in an effort to eek every penny out of a piss poor margin that they themselves have created
Well, I have to agree with who ever it was up above who mentioned that their customer services was going to be sorely missed. I'd like to say that CRC's warranty and returns team were the best and there are a lot of company's out there who will benefit from such polite helpful and friendly staff. Guys and girls I really appreciate the effort you guys have given and only recently have I been refunded a faulty Roubaix top in Blue,
Hopefully that warehouse will lend itself quite well to a similar outfit like NEXT or even Amazon?
Who knows you might even get some of our Banks,
Good luck and all the best.
I'd also like to add, if you are reading this as a disgruntled employee, feel free to laden my box with any random shit you might find laying around on the shelves, anything with XTR or DURA-ACE on it will suffice, I,m not all that keen on campy stuff altho you could use this as it will A: Help to keep the weight of said parcel at a minimum and B: Eat into their profits way quicker than the mass bought far eastern tat.
Just a thought
It was inevitable when two companies who basically do the same thing merge, it doesn't take long for someone to work work out when you've got 2 people (or two groups of people) doing the same job, you can sack one of them and make the other work harder for the same wages you make more money.
CRC will still exist as a brand, and they seem to be keeping on the non-stock handling guys so it will still exist, they're just selling Wiggle's stock now.
Wiggle bought out CRC?? 😯 When did this happen??
doing the same job, you can sack one of them and make the other work harder for the same wages you make more money.
and in some businesses they don't even have to make them work harder, if Wiggle had the capacity to handle orders and processing then it donsn't need more people doing that.
mickmcd - Member
Whilst this is not really fair or directed at those poor buggers out of work nowthis has to be some kind of price shagging Karma, Ironic that a company renowned for maybe contributing a wee tad to the demise of many a local bike shop because no one could pricematch and hope to put food on the table, then finds themselves culling their own in an effort to eek every penny out of a piss poor margin that they themselves have created.
Speaking as someone who lives 5 miles from CRC HQ, I haven't seen too many local bike shops going under since the mid 90's when I first started buying from them. My closest shop is still ticking over selling Trek and Raleigh BSO's and much of their stock (tubes, tyres, gear cables etc) is sourced from CRC.
A year or two ago I needed a couple of BB spacers so decided to support another local shop, Madigans in Carrickfergus. The guy in the shop looked at me funny and said "nah, we don't anything like that, try CRC." So I did and the guy behind the counter of their s****y showroom wandered off to the workshop and came back with a handful of spacers, no charge.
Another time I was bitching to one of the guys at the counter how I was selling a frame but the only interest was from Aus and I was being quoted £240 for postage. He made a call upstairs then said they could post it for me for £25.
They may have been a faceless corporation to those on the mainland and WW, but they were always an 'LBS' in the truest sense for me.
Wowwww... Imagine having CRC as one's LBS... 8)
A bit like when I lived in Sheffield - and JE James was my LBS. That was totes awesums.
Sad day if the shop and warehouse are to go, might call in later on 🙁
You can't blame CRC for the demise of all businesses that couldn't make it but how many shops has Sheffield also had, we ran a very successful one for many years that made plenty of money and still closed down ,Price shagging has been around since my first ever mechanic job in 1985 let alone today where you can loss lead to see who can compete.
But the inter web is very twee it was only a month ago that the hot topic was try in someone's shop but buy online
Next year I'm. Sure brexit will be the reason for the killing off the LBS and people will once again have short arms and deep pockets.
I have the same name as an international road cyclist of some repute. Not Wiggo or that other bloke but he's up there. I had to phone Wiggle the other week and I gave them my name.staffed mainly by agency and/or people who have little or no interest in cycling
'Not [i]the [/i]** *****?' they said 😉
mikewsmith - Memberdoing the same job, you can sack one of them and make the other work harder for the same wages you make more money.
and in some businesses they don't even have to make them work harder, if Wiggle had the capacity to handle orders and processing then it donsn't need more people doing that.
Spoken like a true manager. "I have Order Handlers, they have Order Handlers, together we have too many Order Handlers".
Unless, they plan to close one of the brands and let Merlin take all that business, they're still going to have to handle the same amount of orders the two brands were prior to the merger - they just shifted CRCs workload onto Wiggles, either Wiggle was massively over-staffed in the first place, or they plan to replace CRC people with new Wiggle people, which seems pointlessly cruel, then the Wiggle people are going to be running around harder and faster then ever.
They must have a hell of a system at Wiggle, to mothball/junk CRC's fancy picking and packing system.
They must have a hell of a system at Wiggle, to mothball/junk CRC's fancy picking and packing system.
Who is to say they don't use the same software / processing systems ?
Sadly this is a typical result of a merger / takeover between two companies doing the same thing.
Sad really as what I did buy online I would buy from CRC in part to help
NI. Haven't used Wiggle for years.
I'm with oink1, when the bloody hell did wiggle buy CRC and will this mean CRC prices going up to wiggle prices? If so I think other more bike orientated online retailers will start getting more of my business.
They deal went through over the summer sometime.
Spoken like a true manager. "I have Order Handlers, they have Order Handlers, together we have too many Order Handlers".
One the the positive aspects (to the company doing the buying) of the buyout/merger is ability to reduce staff because of economies of scale/other efficiencies.
Simple capitalism to give the consumer the lowest cost while also becoming the 'winning' company. If you don't like capitalism (I don't by the way) then either vote it out or put on a Guy Fawkes mask and do some sit-ins...
@Dogmatix, Exactly, Like the German one. I dont like Wiggle and i hate the the way they have thrown their DHB kit across CRC's website.
I very much doubt the money i spend at CRC will affect Wiggle in any way shape or form but i wont be using them.