Final clear out as Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles invites bids for remaining warehouse stock

The final clear out process at Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles is underway this afternoon, after what remains of the beleaguered retailer began a sale process for the residual stock in its Citadel warehouse, a day after it was reported that parent company Mapil Topco Limited had appointed a liquidator.

In an email sent to road.cc, it was revealed that “Wiggle Ltd (in administration) is beginning a sales process for the residual stock in the Citadel warehouse”, the 323,000 square foot facility in Bilston, near Wolverhampton, which the retailer moved to in 2015.

“Parties are requested to submit their interest to enter this purchase process by 15th March,” the email continued. “Interested parties are asked to submit their details to the following email address: stock.offer [at] wigglecrc.com.

“It is understood that best and final offers on the stock and assets of the business are expected by 22nd [March].”

Over the last number of weeks, alongside its online outlet store, Wiggle Ltd has been auctioning off its remaining stock, from Vitus ZX-1 road bikes and disc wheels to components and clothing, on its TriSportsResort eBay page.

> Wiggle Chain Reaction parent company appoints liquidators

The news that all of Wiggle CRC’s remaining stock and assets are due to be sold by the end of the month comes just two days after an update posted on Mapil Topco Limited’s Companies House page stated that Anthony Wright and Alastair Massey of FRP Advisory have been appointed as liquidators.

The company’s statement of affairs, also posted on Monday, will be available within the next 10 days.

At the start of the month, we first reported the news that Wiggle Chain Reaction’s brand and intellectual property was to be sold to Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, which also owns Evans Cycles and Sports Direct, in a deal believed to be worth less than £10 million.

Rumours had been circulating about the deal for some time, with all 447 of WiggleCRC’s employees being laid off in February as the administrators “closed the shutters”, with Frasers Group – now run by Ashley’s son-in-law Michael Murray – believed to have purchased some of Wiggle’s in-house brands, such as Vitus, Nukeproof, dhb, and Lifeline.

> Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group reportedly buys Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles for less than £10 million

The saga began in the autumn, with WiggleCRC entering administration and being put up for sale following a financial crisis that engulfed its Berlin-based parent company Signa Sports United (SSU), resulting in 105 jobs being cut at Wiggle, fellow online retailer Chain Reaction, and distributor Hotlines, and the company owing almost £27 million in debts to 400 creditors.

SSU’s crisis was prompted by its own parent company, Signa Holding, removing a €150 million funding commitment, plunging Wiggle and other cycling businesses such as Bikester, Probikeshop, and Farrhad.de into uncertainty.

SSU then filed for insolvency, ushering in administration and months of decline and redundancies for Wiggle and Chain Reaction, despite persistent claims from management that they were “optimistic” of a sale.

> "The assumption was Wiggle Chain Reaction wasn't going anywhere": Ex-employee talks "shock" at retail giant's demise on the road.cc Podcast

On last week's episode of the road.cc Podcast, we heard from a former employee who spoke of staff’s “shock” at the retail giant’s demise.

“Everyone was convinced, this is it, we are one of the biggest bike retailers about. We’re about to go massive in America, then it was like ‘Oh, this might not be plain sailing, this is not good’,” the ex-employee, who worked for one of WiggleCRC’s in-house brands, told us of his response to the withdrawal of the funding commitment.

“But I don’t think anyone thought this was going to close the company. Suddenly the bubble burst, and you’ve got a train you've geared up to full speed, and you’re driving it flat out, then suddenly someone tells you you've run out of track. It was chaos, and you saw everyone hitting that. And I think the £150m combined with that – even with the £150m, there's no guarantee we would have survived. Maybe it got too big.”

> It's our Bike of the Year but should you buy the Vitus Venon EVO-RS Force AXS All-Road bike at 30% discount?

The former employee said the “random” job cuts seemed “brutally handled”, with administration meaning staff members did not receive their minimum notice period either.

“So they went from ‘I have to get this report in by one o’clock’ to ‘sorry’. And fifteen minutes later they’re sitting in a car in the car park going ‘what has just happened?’,” he said.

“Everybody believed this was going to work. We were too successful, we make too much money, we were too good at this. It’s not like there was another competitor in the same market in the UK. You might be one of the unlucky ones who got cut, but the assumption was: Wiggle Chain Reaction wasn’t going anywhere.”

The ex-employee also claimed that staff were told that the company was likely to be sold to a private equity firm, and that management even insisted in meetings: “Don't worry, Mike Ashley is not buying us”.

“Even when we closed, there was no talk about Frasers Group, about Mike Ashley,” he recalled. “We found out through media outlets, which is wild.

“Right until the very end, there was the assumption someone was going to buy us. Because you can run a brand with ten people. And the idea that someone would surely love Vitus, NukeProof, dhb, one of these, surely someone would want to keep a few humans and those brands. But the fact everyone was let go means that those brands are gone.”