WiggleCRC to axe 300 jobs

[TheJDog]

http://www.totalcycling.com/

Is still a locally (NI) owned bike shop, so I will probably try to shift more business their way. Until Wiggle buy them, right Michael?

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

http://www.totalcycling.com/

Is still a locally (NI) owned bike shop, so I will probably try to shift more business their way. Until Wiggle buy them, right Michael?

My head office is in the same estate, never knew Total Cycling was in there too

 

[S-Express]

Right. You might like my magic helmet, too.

Not sure what you mean. I doubt if CRC went cap in hand on their knees to Wiggle, if that's what you are implying. This has all the hallmarks of a long term strategy put in place by Bridgepoint and it wouldn't surprise me if we were to see Wiggle up for sale in a couple of years, so Bridgepoint can get some of their investors' money back (with a nice percentage on top, obviously).

And you think that's his words, rather than, say, something Wiggle's PR department knocked up in his name?

The quote would have been more than likely drafted by the PR dept, but he would have approved the wording. It wouldn't have his name on it otherwise.

 

[smutchin]

The quote would have been more than likely drafted by the PR dept, but he would have approved the wording. It wouldn't have his name on it otherwise.

An editor I once worked for was forever complaining about our media department putting out quotes in his name without letting him approve them first. My favourite was when they quoted him as saying "Simples" (like the meerkats). He absolutely hates people quoting catchphrases off sitcoms or adverts so was apoplectic, which we all found highly amusing in the office.

 

[Flying Dodo]

This has very little to do with cycling, and everything to do with long term investment realisation.

More like short term investment realisation. Although Bridgepoint have owned Wiggle since 2011, I'd expect the merged group to be sold off within a couple of years.

 

[S-Express]

More like short term investment realisation. Although Bridgepoint have owned Wiggle since 2011, I'd expect the merged group to be sold off within a couple of years.

Fair comment, I suppose it depends on who is defining 'long' or 'short' - but as you say I'd also be expecting them to be looking to get their money back within a couple of years.

 

[smutchin]

I've submitted a FOI request to the CMA to ask why they approved the merger. Will report back in due course.

They came back to me pretty quickly, as it happens - with a link to the same report that @srw managed to find and I didn't.

 

[Andrew_P]

Fecking bollocks these investment firms are - Chasing the cash without a thought for the human cost. Plus they ultimately they ruin the choice and shopping experience and I duess if they are in the long haul pricing especially now its not worth price matching EU stores.

Evans since being taken over look like they are staggering around, stock is really poor and all they seem to be "investing" in is the FWE brand which is like Tesco Basics both in packaging and quality. They really do not understand the core market. At least try and come up with a brand that people want to buy/wear

 

[mjr]

Im sure that if I was ever in the position to sell a business, the nature of the buyer would be down the list of important things, £ being at the top.

Ah, how well the capitalists have indoctrinated you! With that attitude to your workers, I hope you never are in that position and I mean that with all fondness.

I suspect it had not occurred to them to sell until Bridgepoint/Wiggle approached them.

I suspect it had always been part of the plan. Most business owners seem to have one of two exit strategies now: 1. sell it; 2. appoint managers to sweat it for them and retire on the dividends. Selling it covers a multitude of sins, though, from a workers' trust, through a floatation, to letting venturers rip it apart.

I have seen the same thing 1st hand, the competition bought our company/brand moved the production to their main facility and closed my branch.
They offered our brand for a year but pushed their brand on the customers until they killed the brand I used to work for.
It's standard practise for business now.

It's been standard practice for decades. Back in 1982, the firm that employed a close relative was bought by a competitor, left alone for a year or two, then distribution moved to the competitor's nearest site, then rebranded to a sub-brand of the competitor that was no longer linked to its geographic location, then production gradually moved abroad and the home factory closed, leaving only the competitor's original distribution centre.

It just seems to happen faster now. They don't even wait for you to forget the BS that they "have not forgotten their roots and continue to invest in cycling locally" before they sell up and close down the NI bits.

Unite (the Union) are predictably outraged.

If anyone didn't expect this after Wiggle bought CRC, what are you drinking?

 

[mjr]

Very kind, I'll have a pint of your best bitter thank you.

If you want to collect: 7pm bike ride, Thu 10 Nov, outside Marriott's Warehouse, South Quay, King's Lynn, finishes at a bar about 8pm.

 

[oldroadman]

Bit of research into Wiggle. It started as a bike shop in Portsmouth. Get into what was then called mail order then e-trading. Grew and grew. At one point Wigg;e had a big warehouse/distribution north of Portsmouth. Along the way the original business owners sold up to another company, who kept Wiggle for a while then sold it on again. Somewhere in all this the Portsmouth location was moved to the midlands. Plenty of Portsmouth jobs lost I guess.
Now Wiggle owners grab CRC, a major competitor, and as has been mentioned will eventually kill the brand.
No prizes for working out that in all this the price has been escalating. Rumour was that the first deal was £10-20 million, next somewhere close to £90 mil, and now who knows what the business will sell for next. All based on multipliers of turnover and profit.
All this top level wheeling and dealing is of no consequence to the workers, they just either carry on, move if they can, or lose a job. When people are trousering millions the problems of Fred Bloggs picking orders in the warehouse are of no concern. Managers do the dirty work and a few get rich. Unions bleat but have no influence whatever they think. Call a strike and big players will simply hire in casual labour.
Whether any of this is moral or right matters not. Money talks.
It was and is just the same as in professional sport, all about the drinking vouchers.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Ah, how well the capitalists have indoctrinated you! With that attitude to your workers, I hope you never are in that position and I mean that with all fondness.

I've had my fill of a55hol3 colleagues, working alone will do fine

 

[Dave 123]

According to Bridgepoint, this is what they do-

http://www.bridgepoint.eu/en/what-we-do/

They're peoplecentric. I'll be looking to forego my haribo.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Not sure what language it spoke

I suspected you English are a bit frosty at times.

I'll be watching the result of the merger, because I've been a regular CRC customer for years, and have always found them reliable and good to deal with.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

I suspected you English are a bit frosty at times.

I'll be watching the result of the merger, because I've been a regular CRC customer for years, and have always found them reliable and good to deal with.