Wiggle taking over CRC, maybe

Wiggle taking over CRC, maybe

Author
Discussion

GaryGlitter

Original Poster:

1,924 posts

182 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
Reports popping up that Wiggle are looking to buy up CRC. Good or bad, discuss.

louiebaby

10,651 posts

190 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
Reducing competition? Usually a bad thing for consumers right?

Also, do CRC sponsor a cycling team too? Would they continue to sponsor both?

AndrewEH1

4,917 posts

152 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
Prices will go up if one company own both...not great for the consumer.

Although I've always found Wiggle's service much quicker than CRC but CRC are usually always cheaper.

GaryGlitter

Original Poster:

1,924 posts

182 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
louiebaby said:
Also, do CRC sponsor a cycling team too?
An Post–Chain Reaction

madzo14

159 posts

121 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
As long as theres no major job losses and none of the two stores which are fairly handy to me close I don't see it being that bad. Over the years I've had more problems getting stuff delivered from CRC than I have from Wiggle and I live no more than 15miles away from their main distribution centre.

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
BikeBiz article states it's almost a done deal. according to them 40 percent of CRC’s sales come from outside the EU, so I'd guess this is wiggle going global.... Will be interesting to see how the euro wholesalers like bike discount and ride24 react....

GaryGlitter

Original Poster:

1,924 posts

182 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
pablo said:
I'd guess this is wiggle going global
Wiggle already state they ship to over 70 countries.

BlueNGT

701 posts

221 months

walm

10,609 posts

201 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
AndrewEH1 said:
Prices will go up if one company own both...not great for the consumer.
Not necessarily.
They may get higher volume discounts they can pass along as well as greater efficiencies at bigger scale (larger warehouses, less to spend on marketing).

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
GaryGlitter said:
Wiggle already state they ship to over 70 countries.
Sorry, I meant increasing global market share rather than branching out

ecsrobin

17,017 posts

164 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
pablo said:
GaryGlitter said:
Wiggle already state they ship to over 70 countries.
Sorry, I meant increasing global market share rather than branching out
They've come a long way from how I remember them as butler bikes! I even remember the sad looking shop when they changed to wiggle.

Rich_W

12,548 posts

211 months

Wednesday 10th February 2016
quotequote all
AndrewEH1 said:
Prices will go up if one company own both...not great for the consumer.

Although I've always found Wiggle's service much quicker than CRC but CRC are usually always cheaper.
So long as WigReaction don't also purchase Evans we'll be ok biggrin

I tend to spend more with Wiggle as a rule. But I always check both first.

ecsrobin

17,017 posts

164 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
quotequote all
Rich_W said:
AndrewEH1 said:
Prices will go up if one company own both...not great for the consumer.

Although I've always found Wiggle's service much quicker than CRC but CRC are usually always cheaper.
So long as WigReaction don't also purchase Evans we'll be ok biggrin

I tend to spend more with Wiggle as a rule. But I always check both first.
Evans is rubbish anyway!

Tiddy1

83 posts

116 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
quotequote all
I find that the wiggle web site is so bad that it usually drives me to CRC or anyone else to be honest, so lets hope they take the best bits of the CRC site not the worst bits of the wiggle one (all of it)

Woody

2,187 posts

283 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
quotequote all
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out.
You'd think that they'd keep them as separate online entities and identities as both offer something slightly different.
I have to confess that I've only ever used Wiggle twice - most of my business goes to CRC as they seem to be the better of the two for MTB stuff.
Hope they don't ditch the 10% British Cycling Discount on CRC.

bakerstreet

4,755 posts

164 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
quotequote all
Wiggle also sponsor a team. Think its woman's UK team.

Not sure how I feel about this. I tend to use Wiggle for most of my purchases, but I have used CRC in the past when they have had decent Shimano deals.

It just goes to show how big Wiggle are now. I remember reading some stats on their turn over for 2012. It was big and something like 250 million. OK, cycling had a boom year in 2012, but I can't imagine its gone down.

I bet they have looked into buying Evans too.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
quotequote all
bakerstreet said:
Wiggle also sponsor a team. Think its woman's UK team.

Not sure how I feel about this. I tend to use Wiggle for most of my purchases, but I have used CRC in the past when they have had decent Shimano deals.

It just goes to show how big Wiggle are now. I remember reading some stats on their turn over for 2012. It was big and something like 250 million. OK, cycling had a boom year in 2012, but I can't imagine its gone down.

I bet they have looked into buying Evans too.
I bet they havent. Retail is a mugs game and one poor member of staff can bring a whole stores reputation down. Plus there is so much additional logistics faff with having stores compared to great big distribution centres that I would imagine Wiggle arent interested in changing their business model just yet. Wiggle know that having no shop fronts, no real public facing element to their business is a good thing, it works for Amazon.

walm

10,609 posts

201 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
quotequote all
pablo said:
...it works for Amazon.
Who just opened a bunch of book stores!

I suspect Wiggle would have cast an eye over Evans, if only because it MIGHT allow them access to more brands to sell.
For example, I think Specialized ban you from selling online only - you have to have a store.

yellowjack

17,065 posts

165 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
quotequote all
walm said:
Who just opened a bunch of book stores!

I suspect Wiggle would have cast an eye over Evans, if only because it MIGHT allow them access to more brands to sell.
For example, I think Specialized ban you from selling online only - you have to have a store.
Same for shops that sell Trek. They do sell over the internet in many cases, but the bike has to be collected in store as...

the pedalon website said:
Please note: this *Trek Superfly 5 Firebrand* is available for in store collection only. This is a global policy of Trek Bicycles. If you would like to purchase this model we recommend using our Click & Collect payment method to reserve your bike online.
...which is fair enough, if you're a big brand with an image to protect, and your outlets have paid a premium to get 'authorised dealer' status. The last thing you want is a low-overheads internet warehouse knocking your bikes out cheaply and without fitting them properly to the customer.

Kermit power

28,634 posts

212 months

Thursday 11th February 2016
quotequote all
I fear for the future of buying mountain bike bits. frown

It used to be that you could compare the price of almost anything on Wiggle & CRC, but in recent years Wiggle seem to have largely moved away from the MTB market.

A few examples...

Forks - Wiggle 19, CRC 188

Handlebars - Wiggle 60, CRC 223

Stems - Wiggle 53, CRC 219

Adult FS Bikes - Wiggle 36, CRC 198

Adult Hardtails - Wiggle 47, CRC 153

I also wouldn't be at all surprised to find that like for like, Wiggle will be more expensive than CRC on almost everything.

I just hope to God that Wiggle don't wreck CRC! yikes