Wiggle is a leading European online sports retailer, selling cycle, run, swim and outdoor equipment and apparel. It is based in Portsmouth, England.
The company forms part of the WiggleCRC group, which also includes Chain Reaction Cycles - the sister company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Bike24 based in Dresden, Germany.
Video Wiggle Ltd
Wiggle Ltd
The origins of Wiggle trace back to a local bike shop called Butlers Cycles, located in Portsmouth. Mitch Dall, a founder of Wiggle, bought the shop in 1995.
Wiggle started officially trading on 28 May 1999, with an initial investment of £2000 from Mitch Dall and Harvey Jones.
Between 1999 and 2009, Wiggle experienced strong growth, experimented with online retail, and experienced strong growth.
By 2006 Wiggle was turning over £11.8m and ISIS Equity Partners took a 42% stake in the company. After a further 3 years of 40% growth ISIS bought the remaining 58% in 2000, including Mitch Dall's remaining 26 percent stake. Annual sales were £55m.
ISIS brought in Humphrey Cobbold as CEO of Wiggle in December 2009. By 2011, projected annual revenuewas £118m following strong international growth helped by a weak pound. Andrew Bond, the former CEO of Asda, was hired to help this process.
By 2011, annual revenue was £86 million and ISIS considered taking the company public in an initial public offering, with the company's overall value estimated at £200m, and pre-tax profits having risen from £7.1m to £10.2m in the year to January 2011, following a 123 percent increase in international sales.
After an intense auction in December 2011, Wiggle was acquired by venture capitalists Bridgepoint Capital for £180m. Wiggle was now one of 6 European online sports retailers, and no 2 in the UK to Chain Reaction Cycles.
In September 2013 Cobbold stepped down and Stefan Barden (former CEO of Northern Foods and former CEO of Heinz UK &Ireland) took over.
Following Barden's appointment, Wiggle relocated to larger, 10,000 square feet offices, increased investment in their online strategy, updating their branding, mobile app, and successfully delivered a large Oracle ERP implementation.
In 2015, the company consolidated its 3 owned and 1 rented warehouses in Portsmouth to a newer larger premise in Wolverhampton, Citadel. Citadel is 320,000 sq feet (4 football pitches), and the initial Wiggle volume only utilised a third of it. Also in 2015, Andy Bond stepped down and Brian McBride joined as Chairman. McBride was formerly the CEO of Amazon UK and is the Chairman of the online fashion clothing retailer ASOS. He is also SID for online appliance retailer AO - formerly Appliances Online.
In February 2016, the merger of Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles was announced; combining the two largest companies in the UK online cycle retail market. The WiggleCRC group formed in July 2016, after the Competition Commission approved the merger.
Maps Wiggle Ltd
WiggleCRC
This widescale investment provided capacity to enable the merger of Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles, whose sales had declined under Wiggle's improved consumer proposition. The merger was announced in February 2016.
The WiggleCRC Group formed in July 2016, after the Competition Commission approved the merger and Wiggle bought 100% of the Chain Reactions Cycle equity from the Watson family for £62m. A key driver of synergies was the closure of CRC's Northern Irish warehouse and distribution infrastructure whose volume was integrated into Citadel in Wolverhampton. This was announced in July 2016 and concluded in December 2017.
The Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles brands remain distinct with their own web-sites. Proforma turnover was over £360m in 2017 and Wiggle was the largest pure-play online Sports Retailer in Europe.
In February 2017, Stefan Barden retired and Will Kernan ws announced as the new CEO - Kernan was previously the CEO of The White Company, and before that the MD at New Look.
On the 23@th of October 2017 it was announced that WiggleCRC had bought a German competitor and market no.2, Bike 24 for a reported £100m. Not only would this give WiggleCRC access to German suppliers but it created a 'Brexit hedge'.
Proforma sales are now believed to be about £500m and it was announced that the Bike24 brand and websites will continue alongside the Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles websites.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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