Wiggle aquire Chainreaction and Bike24

xxyyzz

I read this rumour on a club forum but can't find anything online. Has anybody heard anything.

edit:
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/wiggle-set-to-acquire-chain-reaction-cycles/019056

Alek

Interesting, but I'd be very surprised should this happen.

rollingscone

The article I found suggested that neither party was willing to confirm or deny.

Usually bad news when main players get absorbed.

godtabh

Alek wrote: »

Interesting, but I'd be very surprised should this happen.

Me too. Just on an Ireland/UK basis it would kill competition over night (I know there are other options but these are probably the biggest 2)

ted1

I find CRC to win in price each time , hope it's not true

Alek

On the contrary, in my experience days when CRC was the cheapest place around are long gone....

godtabh

I find CRC better on price and delivery generally but I always shop around

Alek

Fair enough, they are unbeatable with delivery times. Except for swimcyclerun.ie (from what I've heard) no other online shop has 1 day (effectively) delivery in Ireland. And its free.

But if you are not in rush, its hard to beat Germans on prices. They charge for delivery though, but there are ways around it sometimes

Junior

It seems as if CRC's biggest market is outside of UK & IRL.. Evans Cycles sold last year for 100 Million Sterling.

Tenzor07

It's only bad news for the competition!

The buying power of these two combined would make them one of the or probably the biggest online cyclesport retailer in the world...

They were already in trouble with U.S based bike retailers for selling goods cheaply to American customers...

mossym

Alek wrote: »

Fair enough, they are unbeatable with delivery times. Except for swimcyclerun.ie (from what I've heard) no other online shop has 1 day (effectively) delivery in Ireland. And its free.

But if you are not in rush, its hard to beat Germans on prices. They charge for delivery though, but there are ways around it sometimes

agreed, the german shops always cheaper than anything UK or Ireland based.

godtabh

Tenzor07 wrote: »

It's only bad news for the competition!

The buying power of these two combined would make them one of the or probably the biggest online cyclesport retailer in the world...

They were already in trouble with U.S based bike retailers for selling goods cheaply to American customers...

The Americans giving out about out a capitalism. Shocking!

Beasty

mossym wrote: »

agreed, the german shops always cheaper than anything UK or Ireland based.

I've a "casual" membership of British Cycling which gives me 10% off CRC (even when already discounted). I get a minimum 12% off Wiggle with my platinum discount. I find I can usually get a lot of (particularly routine) stuff from one or other as cheap if not cheaper than on the continent.

The recent strength of sterling has made CRC and Wiggle less competitive, but that's starting to reverse now, meaning they could well become cheaper even before the discounts.

I don't see any competition authority standing in the way of a merger. I suspect both brands will be maintained, certainly short term, but they will be able to get stuff in cheaper and improve their margins that way. I don't see them pushing up prices, as that would leave an opportunity for someone else to fill the space left by the 2 merging.

Tenzor07

godtabh wrote: »

The Americans giving out about capitalism. Shocking!

Not really, it's not that the two companies are using a clever and inventive sales strategy, more exploiting the fact that manufacturers are supplying European retailers like CRC/Wiggle at less than the U.S MSRP...

godtabh

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Not really, it's not that the two companies are using a clever and inventive sales strategy, more exploiting the fact that manufacturers are supplying European retailers like CRC/Wiggle at less than the U.S MSRP...

That's capitalism at its finest!

Tenzor07

godtabh wrote: »

That's capitalism at its finest!

Exploitation.. same thing I guess!

mossym

Beasty wrote: »

I've a "casual" membership of British Cycling which gives me 10% off CRC (even when already discounted). I get a minimum 12% off Wiggle with my platinum discount. I find I can usually get a lot of (particularly routine) stuff from one or other as cheap if not cheaper than on the continent.

.

the likes of tires and that can generally be gotten at a much bigger discount. the uk sites will advertise Gp4000's "on sale " at >40 euros a pop, the german sites will have them constantly (not on time limited sale)for 30 to 31 euros. i find cassettes and chains similar. the difference on bigger items can be significant too. cheapest i could find a specific turbo model was 500+ on uk site(wiggle i think), german site was <370.

where i do find the german sites struggle is clothes, wiggle/crc much better for those, but i also tend to use LBS for those more than online.

godtabh

Tenzor07 wrote: »

Exploitation.. same thing I guess!

No thats how the free market works.

A combined CRC and Wiggle could easily put the likes of Swim Cycle Run out of business if they really wanted to in terms of price but probably wont as SCR has a nice niche in their next day deliver (and general great CS).

I handt realized that Merlin went for £100m. Assuming a lot of that was stock and a big customer base

My point is that the Americans are competing on price but the likes of SCR have a differentiation

RobFowl

Beasty wrote: »

I've a "casual" membership of British Cycling which gives me 10% off CRC (even when already discounted). I get a minimum 12% off Wiggle with my platinum discount. I find I can usually get a lot of (particularly routine) stuff from one or other as cheap if not cheaper than on the continent.

They are excellent offers !

Suspect this will actually open the market a little as wiggle and crc tend to offer similar lines, others do better niche deals and this may allow them to expand a little.

CramCycle

I have found wiggle to be consistently cheaper for the last 2 or 3 years, but CRC have a better delivery time.

C3PO

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/wiggle-to-purchase-chain-reaction-cycles-46354/

Hmm ... Looking likely!

Sinbad_NI

Hope not. CRC warehouse is close to work. Very handy.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I check them all when buying and rarely buy from the same place twice in a row although CRC and Wiggle would both get most of my custom but recently Ribble, PBK and PBS have had better prices (inc shipping costs at times) than the others.

Bike24, Bike-Discount, 4theBike and Jedi-Sports always seem to be better for larger, more expensive items.

I can't see a merger by the two effecting prices too much...I hope.

ILIKEFOOD

will be visiting my dentist whose dad works for them tomorrow. .I'll try and wiggle it out of him

Eamonnator

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

will be visiting my dentist whose dad works for them tomorrow. .I'll try and wiggle it out of him

I hope, the dentist doesn't have to do any wiggling.

cromcruach

Really hope this doesn't mean loss of jobs and warehouses in Ballyclare. It's on my way back from work and it's fantastic being able to drive into a shop that stocks everything and has website prices!

Get my servicing done there too, always good and they throw in a lot of stuff gratis. And never blink twice at any weird Campag requests.

PowerToWait

I bought my first proper bike off them in 1992. A grey Marin with obligatory purple trim. Drove up and collected.

Was just a young fella and his oul lad in a pokey shop. Incredible how they grew.

Eamonnator

C.R.C sponsored an MTB race, that I organised in Ravensdale in '95 or '96

PringleDemon

CRC have been actively looking for a buyer for some time now. It's the logical thing to do for them , they have made a £200M personal fortune. I think I could retire on that.

CRC sponsor a lot of local racing from Cyclocross in NI to some of the Enduro scene . Can't see Wiggle being to interested in doing that. What next for the Sean Kelly Pro Team ?

mossym

why do people think CRC is going away? i'd say nothing will change, just the owners. it's a well established brand, with a huge customer base. even if this merger does go ahead, i imagine it will be business as usual.

seamus

mossym wrote: »

why do people think CRC is going away? i'd say nothing will change, just the owners. it's a well established brand, with a huge customer base. even if this merger does go ahead, i imagine it will be business as usual.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if they even rebrand as Wiggle tbh.