Glad its a non-story.  Local Evans to me is top notch with really helpful staff – couldn’t give a crap about free coffee and bribing mechanics with biscuits and being all pally – they are just friendly and helpful.

I hope Evans is staying, they have had my money for an advance order on a Kickr Core, that I should have had by now or very soon. All I have is an email this week saying they don’t know when they will get a delivery from Kickr. Hoping it’s a Kickr supply problem and not an Evans issue. Doing Zwift on rollers is losing its appeal.

Not quite a non-story unfortunately…

https://news.sky.com/story/wheel-turns-for-evans-cycles-as-struggling-chain-eyes-rescue-11503069

Damn, I was given a £25 voucher weekend

Ouch thats not good. I would imagine change will have to happen with any takeover.

On the BBC now…..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45595144

The BBC currently says they are struggling against the online retailer Wiggles 🙂

No contest 🙂

Hmmm, and I’ve recently bought some knee pads I don’t like, which I paid for with a voucher.  Don’t want the knee pads.  But definitely don’t want the voucher back!

Not fake news then.

On the back of this thread I went into a new one at the weekend. Probably 15 years since I’ve last been in one. Hmmm, struggling to rate it. A lot better than a halfords bikehut and a lot better than a typical naff independent but not really up there with the very best indies. Shame if we lose them completely though.

That’s an arse.

I quite like Evans.  They’re a bit of a PC World of the biking fraternity and not everyone’s cup of tea.  And although they’ve pissed me off a few times, it’s usually been over First World problems (other than the time they truly borked a service many moons ago – a lesson I never gave them the chance to repeat).

In contrast, a chap in their Victoria store spent 10 mins rifling through a load of backroom stock in search of 2007 Stumpy mech hangers.  He returned with the last two as he knew they’d been taking off the front and existed somewhere.  That really bailed me out and got me on the trails that evening.  And it’s for moments like that that I hope they remain in business.

From the BBC

It [Evans Cycles] was bought by private equity firm ECI Partners for £80m in 2015, but has had a bumpy ride since then.

😢

Their prices over the past week or two have been crazy and not sustainable.

The SAVE30 code has been working for me on sale and clearance items and even before the code they are undercutting Wiggle/CRC on a great deal of things.

I need to return some brakes but may just sell them on ebay and make a profit.

A stealth Reverb comes in under £150

Their prices over the past week or two have been crazy and not sustainable.

If you need an increased cash flow, which seems they do then that’s the only way to go about it. Undercut knowing its at a loss/zero margin.

They have a big wage bill in a few days and have limited bank credit options then they need cash fast, selling stock is the only way.

A lot better than a halfords bikehut and a lot better than a typical naff independent but not really up there with the very best indies. Shame if we lose them completely though

This basically sums them up, especially in my experience.

I’m wondering if this will effect their Ride It events, as I want to book onto the one in Mold next weekend.

“I’m wondering if this will effect their Ride It events”

It won’t effect their ride, but possibly affect it 🙂

Sadly the high street is a victim of us wanting the instant gratification of buying something but only want to pay 1% more than the grey import online price.

the Aldi/sports direct just dump a pallet of stuff on the floor and sell it off is the future of the industry… the main business of the high street seems to be barbers and convenience food with a few estate agents sprinkled into the mix…

without a presence in stores and on TV cycling will drop away…

From the Guardian article

The retailer’s management team needs to find £20m to fund a rescue plan, but its backers and bankers were understood to be unwilling to provide the extra cash. Advisers to the group have now asked would-be buyers to table an offer within days.

It’s been one after another recently, no idea what will happen, but lets hope not the worst.

If I had an Evans Voucher I ‘d be using it sharpish.

I’m wondering if this will effect their Ride It events, as I want to book onto the one in Mold next weekend.

I’m also booked onto the Cannock event next month – one I’ve been meaning to do for years now and only now got around to doing it. Annoyingly, I have a non-refundable hotel stay booked for it too. It wasn’t an expensive one, but I’ll be a bit grumpy if it gets canned :-/

I suppose that, considering the number of people who stand to lose their jobs if they fail to find a buyer, my worries are a little inconsequential. Hopefully they will survive, but it’s a tough marketplace…

High street shops with landlords putting the rent up and councils putting the rates up.

Internet for buying and price comparison.

Customers who are used to being able to click for anything and get it free the next day.

This is a perfect storm for pretty much all of the high street.

Its not a surprise and I would expect more to go soon.

They’ve recently opened a large store in Reading. I am not surprised they’re in trouble. Two years ago I purchased a Brompton from them, and the service was awful; particularly the aftersales. How difficult can it be to organise a complimentary six week service!?

I also bought a Cannondale Badboy a few months back. Amazing price, nearly half price as it was last years model (identical to this years). I also used some discount codes.  I had to beg, plead for a convenient time to collect the bike. It seemed I could only collect when it was convenient to them, during the week, when I am working in London. Again dealing with the service department was painful. There was  a queue of dissatisfied customers waiting for the service department.

Do they take training courses in how to be unhelpful and rude to customers?

High street shops with landlords putting the rent up and councils putting the rates up.

Internet for buying and price comparison.

Customers who are used to being able to click for anything and get it free the next day.

This is a perfect storm for pretty much all of the high street.

Its not a surprise and I would expect more to go soon.

These are all true, but Evans seem (to my eyes) massively over-extended in their store network. Also, from reading a few posts in this thread, customer service doesn’t always appear to be top-notch, something that should be a given for a successful high-street retailer.

Yes, high street trading is tough, but that’s not a blanket excuse for poor business management.

I drive in Edinburgh and almost every other bike is a pinnacle !! Be shame to lose them. But alas the internet cut throat pricing which I’m also guilty of indulging is killing off the high street. And to be fair driving into any town is a nightmare so delivery to your door is a bonus.

Just about to put an order in for some new tyres, might wait till Monday and see what happens to avoid being House of Fraser-ed.

@daern – I’ve posted on there Ride It FB page and they don’t envisage the Mold event being cancelled

@daern – I’ve posted on there Ride It FB page and they don’t envisage the Mold event being cancelled

Thanks – I suppose this will remain the message right up until the day before if something catastrophic happens to them at short notice, but I do hope for all of the staff concerned that they can pull something out of the bag here.

I wish them all the best as there’s a huge number of jobs at risk.

That said, I had the worst bike buying experince ever from thir Reading branch.
Ordered a Trek Superfly- phoned to confirm collection (midweek at about 5pm).

I turned up and the bike hadn’t even been taken out the box. They built it up damaging the frame, forks, carbon bars and seatpost in the process.. they then stole the fork lockout from another bike (older spec with nasty leaver) as it wasn’t in the box, gouging the crown in the process. I waited 2 hours, with no appology and no update. I was just milling around and each time I enquired- ‘we’re working on it’..
Anyway, bike is ready to collect, covered in marks, grease and protective film. I was fed up and took it without checking as it was the end of a long day. Got it home and found all the marks, alongside lose bolts everywhere and none indexed gears. It was actually dangerous to the point that if an amateur would take it home and start riding there would be a serious crash at somepoint.

I was pretty upset as I rarely buy new bikes. Contacted customer service who where rubbish. Just a ‘sorry’ and no way of remediating the damage caused even after chassing.
It’s put me off Evans for life despite nearly buying 2 other bikes from there.

I forgot to say they also scratched my Cannondale Badboy, no apology or compensation, just accept it or leave it.

I also spent over an hour milling around with no communication, because the bike wasn’t ready.

Awful buying experience.

For balance, while I’ve not been in for a couple of years since I moved away from town, I always had pretty good service in Evans Sheffield, with helpful friendly staff going the extra mile being the norm and generally behaving much more like a friendly LBS than a big multiple.

Possibly some stores are bad and that speaks to a lack of control further up as it has a corrosive effect on the brand, but I don’t believe such rubbish service as the above experiences are typically Evans.

Anyway, bike is ready to collect, covered in marks, grease and protective film. I was fed up and took it without checking as it was the end of a long day. Got it home and found all the marks, alongside lose bolts everywhere and none indexed gears. It was actually dangerous to the point that if an amateur would take it home and start riding there would be a serious crash at somepoint.

I was pretty upset as I rarely buy new bikes. Contacted customer service who where rubbish. Just a ‘sorry’ and no way of remediating the damage caused even after chassing.

why didn’t you just take it back unused for a full refund ?

I hope Evans survive but as a regular customer (mainly for click and clllect and bike purchases at a good price) there are quite a few things they could do to capture a greater share of total spend:

– implement a loyalty scheme. I spend around 1/3 with Evans and 2/3 online with other retailers. Recognising me as a customer and making it worthwhile to spend the 2/3 I don’t spend with them would drive revenue and potentially improve profits if other customers

– Accept Amex payments directly. Some customers have to pay via PayPal for Amex but this means purchases aren’t covered by normal credit card guarantees – so this may drive some customers away.

– sort servicing out. It’s too expensive for ad hoc repairs and for new bike collections they couldn’t be more unhelpful if they tried – my last but one bike purchase wasn’t built up when I went to collect it at the scheduled time – they were saying they were rushed of their feet but the smell of weed drifting out from the back of the workshop area spoke volumes.

– sort the website out. It’s not very developed and isn’t optimised for mobile – with the result that you can often find things on the evans website via google that you can’t find via the site search

– add DPD / collect plus to make it easier for online purchases (and charge for items sent back to limit costs)

– streamline the product range to reduce the cost of inventory. There are too many similar products – a smaller range of best in class items would make little difference to most customers but would improve working capital.

I was in the Guildford store yesterday and Tom who does the bike fitting was really helpful advising me on size … I wanted a small Pinnacle Arkose 3 but they’re not due in stock until 4th November … guess they may never arrive now which would be a shame.

Sad to see – Evans was my LBS when they only had the Waterloo and Wandsworth shops – pre expansion. Some good people working there back then, some of whom stayed for many years after the  VC purchase and expansion.

It does seem though that they massively overstretched themselves with all the new shops at a time when it’s a real challenge to make bricks and mortar work.

@witterings  I’m similar to you, waiting on either the large Arkose 2 or 4 to arrive in stock. Certainly reluctant to put any money down until I can actually collect.

Ive been waiting for a couple of months now so I hope that the carpet isn’t pulled before they arrive.

From a purely selfish point of view I have a £160 lid on back order which is due in next week. Paid on CC and they have debited it. Should the worst happen I assume I would be protected by Barclaycard/Visa? Just wondering if I should cancel now but if everyone does that it will only hasten their demise which I don’t want to happen. As long as I’m protected then happy to wait and see

Edit – quick google gives this on Moneysavingexpert (where else?) – over £100 on a single item so should be OK under Section 75. I’ll wait and see

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/company-administration-help/#cc

im not surprised tbh

when you see the job adverts they are dissimilar to that of someone who might work in spar

alpine has the same issue.

The issue is that you either need to be dedicated to your job OR have a love for bicycles to have the knowledge required to be useful in a bike shop for the wage they pay.

It’s a shame, as ever. The Birmingham store is OK, stock is very hit and miss and the customer service is generally unenthusiastic and uninformed.. The mechanic did sort through boxes and boxes of bits to find me a very specific bolt once though. There website constantly annoys me by showing great prices on Google Shopping and then having no stock.

In truth though, I use them almost exclusively to price match something I want there and then. And by offered web prices on High Street rents is always going to be tough.