Wiggle Ltd
| Private | |
| Industry | Online sports retail |
| Headquarters | Portsmouth, England, UK |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Will Kernan (CEO) |
| Products | Triathlon equipment. Bicycles, components and accessories. Running shoes and apparel. Swimming products. Outdoor and casual sports apparel. Tools etc. |
| Revenue | £300+ Million (Wiggle-CRC Group) |
|
Number of employees
|
c.900 (Wiggle-CRC Group) |
| Website | www.wiggle.co.uk |
Wiggle is an online retailer of cycle, run, swim and outdoor equipment and apparel - based in Portsmouth, England.
The company forms part of the Wiggle-CRC group, which also includes Chain Reaction Cycles - the sister company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Wiggle Ltd
The origins of the 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 28th May 1999, with an initial investment of £2000 from Mitch Dall and Harvey Jones.
Between 1999 and 2009, Wiggle experienced strong growth, and experimented with online retail.
In 2009, Mitch Dall sold his 26 percent stake in the company to investment firm ISIS.
Humphrey Cobbold became CEO of Wiggle in 2009, with Andrew Bond, the former CEO of Asda, joining as the chair of the board of directors. Annual sales in 2009 were £55 million.
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.
In December 2011, Wiggle was acquired by venture capitalists Bridgepoint Capital for £180m. The investment from the new owners allowed Wiggle to launch 11 new websites for overseas consumers.
In September 2013, Stefan Barden joined Wiggle as CEO. In March 2015 Brian McBride became the new Chairman of the company.
In 2015, the company moved its warehouse from Portsmouth to a newer larger premise in Wolverhampton, and the offices moved to new premises at 1000 Lakeside, Portsmouth.
In February 2016, the merger of Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles was announced; combining the two largest companies in UK online cycle retail market. The Wiggle-CRC group formed in July 2016, after the Competition Commission approved the merger.
Read more about the history of Chain Reaction Cycles
Wiggle CRC
In February 2017, Wiggle-CRC appointed Will Kernan as the new CEO - Kernan was previously the CEO of The White Company, and before that the MD at New Look.
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Wikipedia