Wiggle & Chain Reaction to Relaunch Under the Frasers Group
Wiggle and Chain Reaction will be relaunched under its new owners after the brands and IP were sold earlier this month.
After the purchase of Wiggle, Chain Reaction and its in-house brands at the start of March for a reported price of under £10 million, Frasers Group have announced it will be relaunching the e-commerce sites at some point next week.
 | Wiggle and Chain Reaction are well-established names among riders in the UK and across Europe and the acquisition of both brands is consistent with our ambition to become the no.1 Sporting Goods retailer in Europe. It also brings with it the opportunity to work with respected partners through the highly admired, award-winning product lines that Wiggle and Chain Reaction had built. We are excited to explore partnerships with suppliers or distributors looking to expand their offering or an organisation looking to get a foothold in the market by leveraging some established names. |
One big question since the acquisition has been on the future of the in-house brands such as Nukeproof, Vitus and Ragley. In its press release announcing the e-commerce relaunch, Frasers Group said: "Alongside the e-commerce relaunch, which is due to take place next week, Frasers Group is looking to create commercial partnerships to enhance and expand these own-brand lines through development, sales, licensing, and international distribution opportunities."
We asked for further clarification on what this might mean for the brands and were told the Frasers Group is interested in further development for all of the acquired in-house brands and will be looking for commercial partners who could license the brands and keep producing new products.
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As someone who worked for Evans Cycle I can confirm its exactly this same s#!t as on EC website since Mike owns it.
No Nukeproof, Vitus or proper bike parts hubs etc. Its like someone just copy and paste with Chain reaction logo
Even my 18 years old account not working as they didn't move this over...!
Just wondering who will deal with warranty if my Fox 38 or e-bike which I purchased few months ago fail...?
Definitely its not CRC I did love and use in a past.
Big thank you to everyone who used to work for CRC in a old good times!
It's a bit mad to see those bikes on the CRC site at £150 quid, Muddy Fox. No doubt Nukeproof, Vitus and Ragley will go down that route as I cant see Evans getting into product development for those brands.
In regards to your fork, I would reach out to Silverfish with your receipt for any warranty claims, I believe they are still the UK supplier for Fox Suspension.
the factories didnt get paid, or paid in full.
So they move on to the next factory, that might be needing work, cause they expanded, and now things have slowed down.....
And on goes the cycle
Interesting to see how this goes.
ETA: but yes, unpaid bills at old factories will see new factories, new moulds, and new designs...
To the point made in the Taipei edition of the podcast - Chinese / Taiwanese companies are starting to cut out the agents / brands and sell direct. There are a few already doing it, I think we can expect to see a lot more.
It’s still a shitty situation for the supplier, but likely better than debt + no further work. There’s also the interesting question of who owns the tooling, and how the newco could access that (likely the factories now due to the u paid debts)
*and other brands
Make Muddy Fox Great Again!
Probably the only positive with them not using the original staff.
Not the original product designers = bad.
Not the original website designers = good.
The good times are gone. Now there will be completely non existent customer service and poorly manufactured goods.
Another name bought out to rely on the reputation for some more desperate sales. It only works short term.
I get the horrible feeling that Mr Ashley is going to destroy the in house brands but I really hope some buys Nukeproof to run independently.
Same as it has happened with Orange Bikes. UK insolvency law and administration process regulation are a joke.
I.e
Someone else to make etc. After all none of the NP etc team now exist. Everyone's gone. So they are looking for someone to be external.
As mentioned it'll be a rebranded Evans platform.
Apart from tredz, merlin and the Spanish one? Tradeinn? I can't think of anyone decent now.
We’re not really in a bad place. It’s just that CRC/Wiggle used to be a one-stop shop
but otherwise sad ending
(Assuming they even bother to support the now "old" bike frames.)
Things we need: Grim Donut Forum edition aka the Grim Forum.