WiggleCRC Administrators’ report: What does the future hold?

We take a look at how the WiggleCRC administration process is going, and where we may be headed. Followers of industry news will recall that the admin …

By stwhannah

Get the full story here:

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/wigglecrc-administrators-report-what-does-the-future-hold/

Interesting insight into things from somebody with more bike industry knowledge and information than the majority of the forum.

If they have indeed handled a lot of their debts, it clearly shows that the wish to keep things alive and bridges not burned is strong.

Personally I hope it comes out the other side, although I hope it isn’t Mike Ashley, albeit for non founded reasoning.

It is a good follow from an outsiders perspective, but I’m sure as a collective we all wish it didn’t have to happen for the staff who are no doubt worried about their future.

CRC and Wiggle could be separated with  Halfords or Frasers buying one of the brands and  putting Tredz or Evans web site behind it.      The other brand could be left with the warehouse, IT, staff etc.   

Or possibly the administrator would get more by just selling the Wiggle brand, house brands and remaining stock to Frasers who already have a warehouse and IT system and the Chain Reaction brand to Halfords to put in front of Tredz.  

Repayments agreed doesn’t mean suppliers are being fully paid.

 

I know of one supplier with a relatively small O/S of ~£3K who says he’s getting ~£300.

 

A lot still to come out in the wash.

Interesting reading about Anders Povlsen.  I had no idea he was the single biggest landowner in Scotland now or that he had plans for rewilding.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/21/danish-billionaires-anders-and-anne-holch-povlsen-say-plan-is-to-restore-scottish-highlands

I wonder if rewilding would be good or bad for mountain biking in Scotland…

Good I reckon…

A quick explanation of the retention of title (ROT) point in the report.  In case anyone’s interested…

As a basic rule ownership of/title to goods in the UK passes on delivery even if they are not paid for at that point. It is possible to change that position by contract so that (in simple terms) ownership passes on payment – this is known as retention of title / ROT.

By way of example…

If you were a supplier owed £10,000 and had a valid ROT claim but you could only satisfactorily identify £500 of recoverable stock at the time of administration then the deal you would be doing with an administrator would be based on that lower amount.  The balance of your £10,000 debt would still be an unsecured claim.

Just to be clear/avoid doubt this is intended as a general comment about what ROT is.

Problem comes when a customer like this has multiple sources for a product/brand (like grey imports of OEM product) as they could, and do dispute ROT due to an inability to prove source of the product.

I deeply hope it is NOT cAshley. For lots of well-founded reasons. 

The supply chain / creditors will get a dicking over for starters. And any remaining staff.

His modus operandi when you look at other previous acquisitions is about taking on no liability, wait until the fire sale to go in and get the bargain stock at pennies in the pound, **** to the creditors, and winning the race to the bottom.  Seems like a lot of people have VERY short memories when it comes to issues such as employment conditions and terms etc as applied to those in Shireoaks (the subject of a Parliamentary investigation, no less).

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmbis/219/21903.htm

And even after that, more breaches

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/05/sports-direct-fails-2016-pledge-zero-hours-shirebrook-mike-ashley

 

He has traded on the past quality and glory of long-dead British companies like Karrimor, Slazenger,  Dunlop, Lonsdale, and others, applying names to cheap far east shiiite.

For me, it’s as simple as A-B-C.  Anything But Cashley.

plans for rewilding

It’s not just plans. Glen Feshie has been transformed and there is a massive amount of work under way on other estates.

The 2 links posted ^ about Ashley/Sports Direct are more than 6 years old so I would question their relevance.
Also, it’s Shirebrook not Shireoaks; it’s a shit-hole.

Seems like Amazon could use the brands.

Good I reckon…

Yeah, I would have thought so to.

I just don’t trust very very rich people.  Even if they are Danish. So in my head I’m trying to think how we could be getting screwed over.

But that could just be my paranoia.

Rewild it all then slap some sort of change of use and then noone gets in…

As above, I really hope Mike Ashley doesn’t get his hands on them. Failing that, maybe the next government will make zero hours contracts illegal and force him to rethink his business models… 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/09/mike-ashley-owned-evans-cycles-to-axe-300-staff

Just been reading wiggle/CRC owed Haribo 20k!

https://road.cc/content/news/wigglecrc-owes-haribo-ps20000-305947

Recent acquisitions by this privately owned company [Pentlands/JD Sports] have been more brand rather than retailer orientated …

They have Leisure Lakes and Wheelbase tho’ don’t they. A ready-made stronger online presence than they manage through these retailers might be worthwhile addition to their setup.

Just been reading wiggle/CRC owed Haribo 20k!

This is real scoop 😀

ffs, thats my annual intake of tangfastics (given my own way)

They also owe a bike shop in Canada called Chain Reaction Bicycles £10k

@ped you’re right. I’d missed that connection.

Just been reading wiggle/CRC owed Haribo 20k!

I’ve recently paid about £15 for 3kg of cola bottles. At that rate, thats 4 tonnes of haribo.

*homer drool*

This is real scoop

A very big one and the paperbag to hold them will need to be outsize too!

I think the wording of the article needs to be careful about interpreting the very careful wording of an administrator. The retention of title questionaire spoken of is how you state what you own, it doesn’t give you it back. Resolved doesn’t mean paid. What it normally means is you agree sort of at gunpoint to getting whatever pence in the pound is left in the ashes rather than nothing. 

An administrator ringfences the stock so for a limited time you can’t get it. Guess what happens next…. They flog it all as fast as possible to pay their bills before you can get a court order to repossess it. Technically you have to sue the customer who bought it to get it back!

my guess how this ends up. It looks like all the stock has been sold now, they are tidying up ready to accept the highest offer for the IP such as brand names. Then the creditors will get 5% of what they are owed after several rounds of the administrator charging £750 per hour to do paperwork have gobbled up most of the money. 

I suspect Halfords or Ashley will buy the shop brands to make a mirror of their current shops. Maybe nukeproof will be bought to peddle some generic stuff for a while before dying a painful death. Neither is worth seven figures so won’t dent the pile of debts which I doubt any have been paid till it’s finally wound up  

if a good offer to buy as a going concern existed a month ago it would have gone ahead. We need to get out of repeating “huge buying power allows massive discounts”, it’s simply not true outside of grey market price shagging. The reality was it was cheap as it was sucking in tens of millions of loans from the parent company they didn’t have to pay back

let’s wait and see

Neil SuperstarComponents