Possible demise of CRC / Wiggle

If their Bilston warehouse is anything like the Argos RDC I worked at up the road, most stock will have been slung over the back fence by now!

The German system being used is slightly different it seems… the owners still have some control, at least at first.

That’s the parent company, Wiggle / CRC is a UK registered company and if/when it enters administration Companies House will assign a UK Administrator to handle the process.

So has anyone ordered anything today and had a confirmation of order or dispatch notice? There’s a few bits I wanted to order, I’m not bothered about sending stuff back or warranty so if I know they’re still posting then I would make the purchase.

I got a refund confirmation today of some stuff I sent back last week if that helps?

Ordered some things last night and arrived today.

Ordered last night, confirmation of dispatch today.

Don’t think bailing on them helps unless you want them to definitely fail, there’s ways to protect yourself and get your money back if the worst happens, I’ll be ordering, why pile on and make it worse.

I took a chance in a cheap 105 cassette.

Its down as processing….i paid at about 9am today

Ooh, now down as shipped….

@marko have you ever heard the phrase “you snooze you lose”? You snoozed, you lost, get over it. Would you still expect them to honour the sale if someone had bought the last one whilst it was sitting in your cart for a day or however long you planned to sit on it? There’s plenty you can knock them for but that’s just a load of entitled nonsense.

Neil is Mr superstar components, it’s his company.

I welcome his insights into the cycling business world.

I think the point is more of a broader one about VC’s or financiers buying, stripping and selling businesses which they have no interest in other than as a way to make money. It makes life pretty dull if that’s all you care about.

I don’t think he’s saying anything contentious

Debt is cheaper than equity and stakeholders happy with growth over cash generation leads to stuff like this when the cold wind blows.

The brand can sometimes be the only thing that survives so there’s plenty of lifting and shifting and asset moving with suppliers and the tax man left with the problem

I presume you are still discussing the semantics of changing company name? Can you tell me why they do it if its not to make it different to the new Phoenix company?

1) There was no Phoenix company in the Evans administration.

2) You’re creeping away from your original claim that “they changed the company name to make it harder to find…”.

1) There was no Phoenix company in the Evans administration.

This +1
The term is only truly applicable where the successor entity is under substantially the same control as the insolvent entity.

There was an independent third party buyer in the Evans matter.

Still not seen any formal confirmation of administration yet?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Can anyone spread any light on purchases made through PayPal and if there’s any recourse similar to Cc’s?

Need to send back a bike and obvs getting refunded by wiggle/CRC is slim, but if PayPal is on the hook then it’s a no brainer….

I have some returns to make. I am waiting to see how things pan out with actual press releases first. Appreciate that might be frustrating, but I am not confident whats going to happen yet.Just my own view.

They payed £8million. That’s where the small amount of debts paid off came from. It’s all listed in the documents on companies house

More was paid out after the sale though. But anyway, I think we’re in agreement about how these things go in general/principle.

@simondbarnes  ha ha great minds or fools never differ etc

I used to like going through the double page mag adverts with all the lists on and phoning up a bloke with a full norn iron accent

I remember being slightly blown away when someone told me about CRC. ‘You can buy BIKE PARTS on the internet? WTF!’. Next day delivery and free shipping for everything, possibly including jumpers and goalposts…

On that note, they still have a bricks and mortar shop in Belfast. 

In hinsight, they were miles ahead of their time weren’t they? Must be 20 years ago I first started buying bike parts – CRC always had what I needed, at the best price, and were doing free next day delivery even way back then.
Haven’t used them for years now mind – the stock situation is crap, prices are crap (unless you want size XXXXXXXXXS), postage costs as much as anywhere else

Haven’t used them for years now mind – the stock situation is crap, prices are crap (unless you want size XXXXXXXXXS), postage costs as much as anywhere else

Guess it depends on what sort of stuff you buy. I am still buying lots of stuff from them as they tend to have what I want 80% of the time, it is the best price (with platinum discount) and it gets delivered within 2 or 3 days when picking the free postage options
I will miss it if it goes

Guess it depends on what sort of stuff you buy

My ten pence worth.
I usually know what I want so Ill Google it. Due to cookies etc crc/wiggle usually shows up with a good price so I’ll click it. It’s then either out of stock or it will have two prices. The cheaper price is either for a really bad colour or a silly size. The one I want, if it’s in stock will be more expensive than the competition.

From time to time I’ll see something I want. The other day I was trying to bring the basket up to £100 to use a code but couldn’t find anything else I wanted.

I had a look last night to see if there was anything I wanted. Looked at shorts, they had 111 variations of shorts but again, when I clicked on ones I liked the cheaper price was either bright red or xxxxl. I gave up in the end. Just couldn’t be bothered.

I hope they find some capital or a new buyer and they continue. I wish them well. Like most of us, I’ve used them a lot over the years but less so recently.

If they do go under it will be interesting to see how the market reacts and how it will change everything. I suspect prices will go up if they are not around anymore as the competition fill in the gaps.

I took a punt and ordered something yesterday afternoon, wiggle dispatch email at 11pm and courier tracking says it’s due for delivery tomorrow. On the face of it everything seems to be working… I will report back if it goes pear shaped

People forget administration happens. Stanton did it and seemingly are doing ok now, Planet X did (I think) Evans did etc. Sometimes it is just the restructuring of debt that needs to happen.

Might end up as a different looking business but it’ll carry on in some form. Hopefully with a better website and minimal impact on staff and suppliers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

Neil had a log in as “fruit” which he used to promote his brand without declaring it was his brand

Wtf is AstroTurfed?

When a company/organisation creates a load of seemingly innocent “supporters” (or customers or whatever) that pop up “unsolicited” to support whatever the company says.

So a company could post something under their own legitimate name to publicise themselves then change accounts and start posting favourable “reviews” or supportive comments about the company posing as “innocent buyers”.

“Ooh yes, I bought from this company and they are amazing!”

Happens a lot on Twitter too. Bots mostly on there. In real life if it’s one person, the posting style and phrasing normally outs them eventually.

I dont like to be critical, but I do find it quite bizzare that STW are not covering this. People dont want to be gateposted to ft.com etc. Its one of the biggest UK companies and brands so being dismisive and zero coverage seems a very odd editorial choice. If this isnt news worthy then what is?

The website really is terrible, wife is considering a new 650b gravel bike.

I filter by “in stock”
I filter by “small”
I filter by “S”
I filter by “extra small”
I filter by “XS”

I get about 25 results.

There’s just 6 actual bikes that fit what I’m after & I need to scroll and scroll to see if any are 650 because that’s not a filter.

Wtf is AstroTurfed?

crazy-legs

When a company/organisation creates a load of seemingly innocent “supporters” (or customers or whatever) that pop up “unsolicited” to support whatever the company says.

Wow, that is a great point @crazy-legs and very reliable. Actually a lot of my friends say that @crazy-legs makes lots of great points, and the prices and delivery are very good too. I think I am going to sign up for the @crazy-legs news letter, it has weekly discount codes. There’s even a giveaway this week on the @crazy-legs newsletter! 🌟 🤩 ⭐

suspendedanimation

I dont like to be critical, but I do find it quite bizzare that STW are not covering this.

It’s literally on the front page of the website.

@suspendedanimation There is a story on this. The ‘this’ I pointed to the FT on is the Benko/signa holdings wider story. That’s just beyond my field.

This rumours thread started before the news story, which is here and has been widely shared and cited (DJ Brandt even included it in his Instagram post):

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/signa-sports-financial-woes-future-of-crc-wiggle-nukeproof-and-more-in-balance/

This is all getting a bit underwhelming. Would be nice to stay on topic (thank you stwhannah).

The price sensitivity of stuff sold online is an issue, but I’ve started happily paying a bit more from companies I ‘trust’ and that included Chiggle.  If they said they had it in stock, they genuinely had it in stock and delivery times were reliable as a result.

Theres a lot of online bike retailers who are selling ‘in stock at our supplier’ which they don’t actually have a stock info link to. So the mudguards I had to cancel recently as ‘delivered in 7 working days’ became 6 weeks when the order was confirmed (clearly it WASNT in stock at their supplier after all).

I needed a few bits for my bike, ordered yesterday afternoon and should be turning up this afternoon. If they don’t turn up I know it won’t be Wiggles fault it will be the inconsistent Saturday DPD driver we have around here.

For the poster asking about returning a bike (and other stuff) my personal approach would be this:

If I paid on cc or PayPal within their time limit (xx days I think but it was summarised nicely on the news thread) and if the carrier collecting it is wiggle’s, I’d arrange the return ensure I get a receipt for collection, take a photo of it being collected, and send it.
Once the carrier has it if wiggle organised and paid for carriage it is their problem, then if wiggle becomes a problem it’s the cc or pp’s risk.

If either of those caveats isn’t true at this point I would not be sending. The risk of them not being there when it gets delivered exists. The risk of it but being receipted etc exists and it all becomes too much of a gamble in my opinion .

To clarify this is not advice, it is my personal opinion. It is a gamble either way and you need to decide your appetite for that risk.

Section 75 covered by droplinked in the comments here:

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/signa-sports-financial-woes-future-of-crc-wiggle-nukeproof-and-more-in-balance/