The cycling retail e-commerce giant, Wiggle, has appointed an administrator and announced that its parent company, Signa Sports United N.It has been sold following financial difficulties by recent events in V (SSU).

Wiggle Limited, Company number 02667809, was listed this morning in the UK's official public records, bankruptcy notice on the Gazette.

This notice confirms that Anthony John Wright and Alastair Rex Massey of FRP Advisory have taken over as administrators.

A statement from the co-administrators sent to Cyclingnews as the news broke has since revealed that the WiggleCRC brand is set to be put on sale.

"WiggleCRC, an online sports retail group, is set to be sold after the appointment of a co-administrator," the announcement began.

Alastair Massey and Tony Wright of professional business advisory firm FRP were appointed in 2023/10/25 as Mapil Midco1Limited and Wiggle Limited. The group of subsidiaries that form the rest of wigglecrc, including Chain Reaction Cycles Limited, Chain Reaction Cycles Retail Limited and Hotlines Europe Limited, will be placed into administration soon.

It is unclear whether Mapil Topco Limited, defined as "the ultimate parent of the group" and located directly below Germany-based Signa Sports United, will also enter administration.

Wiggle is an online retailer of bicycles and accessories, as well as outdoor sports equipment such as running, hiking and swimming. Born in 1995 from a local bike shop, Butler's Cycle, the Wiggle officially began trading in 1999.

Chain Reaction Cycles was founded in 1984 in the village of Ballynure in Northern Ireland. It also started life as a local bike shop, Ballynure Cycles, and launched its website in 1999.

The 2 businesses announced a merger in 2016, forming WiggleCRC, which was later acquired by Signa Sports United in 2021. WiggleCRC also has household brands such as Vitus, dhb and Nukeproof as well as a B2B supplier hotline, alongside 2 e-commerce powers.

The company is headquartered in Portsmouth, England, Wiggle's original hometown, and operates a 320,000-square-foot warehouse facility a few hours north of Bilston, Wolverhampton, and employs about 450 staff. A statement shared by the co-managers confirms that "all staff are retained" at this stage.

This statement also provides a sense of security to customers.

"We want to reassure our customers that all operations are running as normal,のウェブサイトやオンライン販売を含みますWiggle.com ,ChainReactionCycles.com とHotlines-UK.com ... Customer service support is live and can be contacted with any queries through their respective websites.

The FAQ section of Wiggle's website states: "All orders placed on Wiggle will continue to be delivered as normal and our standard Terms and Conditions will still apply to returns and warranty claims.

The brand's financial difficulties were first revealed in the summer when WiggleCRC reported a loss of £97 million. However, in early May the SSU announced plans for "accelerating strategic restructuring and restructuring programs", "threatening the termination or contraction of nonperforming assets" amid tough challenges of liquidity and profitability"

It cited the bicycle industry as an underperformer, stating that it "continued to delay management expectations."

The real difficulty, however, began when SSU's major shareholder, Cigna Holding, rejected an unconditional equity commitment letter of 600 million euros totaling 15,000 euros after only one million euros were withdrawn.

These funds were committed to ensure the continued concern of the SSU and its many subsidiaries, and their sudden removal sent shockwaves down the chain.

News broke that Wigglecrc had been affected last week as indistry's supplier revealed that the company had cancelled all existing purchase orders with its suppliers and stopped paying invoices.

Just a few days later - earlier this week-Internetstores, a European-based e-commerce umbrella company of SSU, which houses brands such as Bikester and Probikeshop, was arrested in the Stuttgart District Court