Cyclingnews can reveal that the cycling retail eCommerce giant, Wiggle, has appointed administrators following the financial difficulty put upon it by recent events at parent company, Signa Sports United N.V (SSU).
Wiggle Limited, company number 02667809, has been listed this morning on the Insolvency Notices on the United Kingdom’s Official Public Record, The Gazette.
The notice lists the ‘date of appointment’ as Tuesday October 24, 2023, and shows Anthony John Wright and Alastair Rex Massey from FRP Advisory as administrators.
Listed with a registered office in Portsmouth, UK, the notice tallies with the brand on Companies House, the executive agency of the British Government that maintains the register of companies.
There it lists the company Director as Huw David Crwys-Williams, whose Linkedin profile says he is the Chief Executive Officer of WiggleCRC.
Companies House connects Crwys-Williams with 13 different companies, including two iterations of Chain Reaction Cycles: Chain Reaction Cycles Ltd and its direct subsidiary Chain Reaction Cycles Retail Limited. Neither of which are shown on the Insolvency Notices.
Likewise Mapil Topco Limited, which is defined as the “ultimate parent of the group,” and sits directly beneath Germany-based Signa Sports United, is not listed on The Gazette.
Wiggle is an online retailer of bikes and accessories, as well as other outdoor sports gear including running, hiking, swimming, and more. It was borne out of a local bike shop, Butlers Cycles, in 1995, and Wiggle officially began trading in 1999.
The news comes just days after Internetstores, SSU’s Europe-based eCommerce umbrella company which houses brands such as Bikester and Probikeshop, also filed for insolvency in the Stuttgart District Court.
It also follows news which broke last week of WiggleCRC, the business name encompassing websites Wiggle.com and ChainReactionCycles.com, had cancelled all existing purchase orders with suppliers and stopped paying invoices.
The brand’s financial difficulty was first revealed in summer, when it was reported that WiggleCRC posted a £97 million loss. However, it came to a head in early October when SSU announced plans for an “accelerated strategic realignment and restructuring program,” in which it threatened “the termination or winding down of non-performing assets” amid “severe liquidity and profitability challenges.”
It cited the bike industry as an underperformer, stating that it “continued to lag management…
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