Wiggle's being sold....

[Red Light]

....for £180-200m to the owners of Pret a Manger and Fat Face. They apparently sold us £86m worth of cycling stuff last year.

 

[ufkacbln]

I remember a small shop in in Southsea, then they had two guys with a computer and stock control, then decided to do mail order

When they moved to a bigger premise these guys started internet ordering, and it has grown from there!

 

[Fab Foodie]

....for £180-200m to the owners of Pret a Manger and Fat Face. They apparently sold us £86m worth of cycling stuff last year.

Maybe we'll now get a free coffee if we go for the espresso delivery option ....

 

[Crackle]

Maybe we'll now get a free coffee if we go for the espresso delivery option ....

<groan>

Would that be a Fair Trade though?

 

[Klaus]

Perhaps we get Wiggle in the high street?

 

[DCLane]

I'm not surprised - my students are studying Pret next week as a case and they're bike enthusiasts.

 

[srw]

I'm not surprised - my students are studying Pret next week as a case and they're bike enthusiasts.

The people behind Pret are not the people taking over wiggle, who are a firm of private equity investors (http://www.bridgepoint.eu/our-team-values/our-team). They own everything from a firm of debt collectors to an airport - Pret and Fatface are just the only companies anyone who reads the Telegraph will have heard of.

 

[srw]

[QUOTE 1631765, member: 45"]I say 18 months before they hit the high st.
[/quote]
I disagree. Looking at the list of investments made by the private equity firm (http://www.bridgepoint.eu/current-investments), there's no bias towards high-street retail, and no obvious strategy of cross-investment fertilisation.

It's far more likely that wiggle's current managers have a business plan which involves more of what they're good at (internet-based retailing), perhaps branching out into different countries. Why branch out into the (dying) High Street when you're good at the internet?

One other possibility for expansion might be for wiggle to provide the internet face of a high-street store which can't do it itself, in the same way that they provide the CTC shop. (A large French-based retailer springs to mind...)

 

[Blue]

Maybe they will open shops in 'out of town' retail parks. CRC have done that in Belfast.

 

[gavintc]

Personally, I see no need for them to have a shop presence. They have found their niche and are serving it well. Moving into a new market will bring fresh risks and fresh costs for limited additional exposure to the costumers. In the current market, I would recommend them to do what they know - and to continue to do it well.

 

[Blue]

It is possible that increasing competition in their existing market sector is limiting expansion plans and so forcing them look to other areas. They must want the fresh capital for something, unless they are just taking a profit and jumping ship.

 

[Blue]

As long as the customer gets some benefit, who cares why they are selling!

 

[jayonabike]

Looks like they're setting up dhb's own site

 

[viper]

Im out of touch here , i thought Halfords were buying Wiggle some time ago.

 

[Red Light]

The people behind Pret are not the people taking over wiggle, who are a firm of private equity investors (http://www.bridgepoint.eu/our-team-values/our-team). They own everything from a firm of debt collectors to an airport - Pret and Fatface are just the only companies anyone who reads the Telegraph will have heard of.

Wiggle is currently chaired by Andy Bond, former CEO of Asda and a keen cyclist to boot.