sports direct after taking over evans cycles

foy

Mike ashley owner of sports direct is after taking over evans cycles, this is the guy who likes to give his workforce zero hours contracts. The stumbling block for ashley is whether or not the likes of trek cannondale specialized would be happy with the sports direct name being involved with evans cycles who ashley is planning to buy for 100 million. I do not think the bike companies will be too happy as any sports direct involvement with evans can only cheapen their brands. What do other bike radar users think?

Dick Scruttock

Will it make evens worse than they are currently? Probably not. Imagine the buying power Ashley would have if he was to distribute bikes in every sports direct store. It could be a behemoth, bigger than CRC.

bikes`n`guns

Evans current staff seem to know as much about bikes as your average trainer salesperson, so I imagine it won`t make much difference.

The Rookie

Like most big chains, store and employee quality vary wildly.

Will he look to combine at store level or just at buying power level is the key question.

Existing Evans staff can't be forced onto SD contracts immediately anyway.

njee20

And the bike brands won't allow their bikes to go into every SD store. I guess they may be able to sell kit or whatever, but not bikes.

POAH

honestly couldn't care if he buys evans or not

ilovedirt

Evans are censored anyway, wouldn't make a bit of difference. I wouldn't shop there either way.

RockmonkeySC

I blame Wiggle

tangled_metal

For many without the need for expensive bikes or the latest kit to Evans is not a bad shop. My nearest is good, if you speak to the right assistant. They offer good prices in the sales of old models IMHO which is why.I bought from them.

If SD take over I'd hope they'd not screw it uplike they did with Field and Trek outdoor shop chain. Plus Karrimor brand, although that was screwed by others before Ashley.

I think if the big brands stop selling he'll come up with other brands. Perhaps Merida, diamondback and otherlower brands. They'll dumb it all down and still make money but we'll lose a reasonable bike shop.chain.

RockmonkeySC

They couldn't dumb down my local Evans (Bristol). Half their staff don't ride and the others are roadies with no mountain bike knowledge. If Evans get worse it will help out small shops, people might start to realize that it's worth paying a little extra for a good shop.

dodgy

Tangled Metal wrote:

My nearest is good, if you speak to the right assistant.

Is there a secret handshake, or sign we should give to find the competent staff?

robertpb

dodgy wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote:

My nearest is good, if you speak to the right assistant.

Is there a secret handshake, or sign we should give to find the competent staff?

Just mention 'derailleur'

ilovedirt

Tangled Metal wrote:

For many without the need for expensive bikes or the latest kit to Evans is not a bad shop. My nearest is good, if you speak to the right assistant. They offer good prices in the sales of old models IMHO which is why.I bought from them.

If SD take over I'd hope they'd not screw it uplike they did with Field and Trek outdoor shop chain. Plus Karrimor brand, although that was screwed by others before Ashley.

I think if the big brands stop selling he'll come up with other brands. Perhaps Merida, diamondback and otherlower brands. They'll dumb it all down and still make money but we'll lose a reasonable bike shop.chain.

Plenty of high end bike shops stock good beginner bikes too, obviously Evans are able to sell many at a slightly lower price due to their huge buying power, but you certainly don't get the service or knowledge.

RevellRider

There was talk over on the Road.cc website that Wiggle might also express an interest in Evans as a quick and easy way to gain a high street presence.

batmo

RevellRider wrote:

There was talk over on the Road.cc website that Wiggle might also express an interest in Evans as a quick and easy way to gain a high street presence.

I was going to say that Wiggle already have a high street presence; there's a service centre in my local Homebase. Then I checked the website and found it's the only one!
I've only shopped at Evans once, when buying my Garmin. The price was very good (extra 20% off on the day as I recall), but I did have to go back to the shop and work my way through three staff to the store manager to actually get everything the bundle was supposed to contain.

tangled_metal

dodgy wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote:

My nearest is good, if you speak to the right assistant.

Is there a secret handshake, or sign we should give to find the competent staff?

I just talk to them and walk off if he/she sounds hopeless then speak to someone else. Not rocket science. Mind you in my local Evans if an assistant wasn't sure they passed me on to someone with the right knowledge. For example when I've been in asking about child seats, trailers and balance bike I got directed to the guy who's a keen cyclist with kids. He'd owned a few of the things we were looking at so could give us good advice. I've had that only in good shops (bike and outdoor gear shops) only at Evans I've never had a snobbish assistant like some independents I've been in.
I guess Evans is a big enough chain to show a wide variability in the quality of their stores. At least they're not as bad as Halfords.

Wiggle or Ashley? Which do you think would be the worst new owner?

paulneenan76

Evans cycles are the number one bike retailer. They outdo CRC on-line - which surprised me - so I doubt very much Wiggle could be in with a shout. £100 million seems low too. Mike Ashley is a clever cookie so if he did buy it, I would expect him too keep the brands separate, to not devalue Evans.

coulddobetter

This story broke in 2007 .

Dick Scruttock

paulneenan76 wrote:

Evans cycles are the number one bike retailer. They outdo CRC on-line - which surprised me - so I doubt very much Wiggle could be in with a shout.

What made you arrive at that conclusion?

markhewitt1978

coulddobetter wrote:

This story broke in 2007 .

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/lat ... les-154359

2007 he expressed an interest but was outbid, so he's trying again.

mattrixdesign2

Never had an issue with Evans! So don't really get the all the bashing, but I guess everyone else has had a bad experience.

Bought my first road bike from them (Spesh Allez), heavily discounted to £380 one Christmas, they price matched Wiggle and CRC almost instantly and will ship or I can go and collect locally. Most recently got some shoes off them (Giro) cheapest on the net + got them to price match 105 cassette (CRC) and Ultegra Chain (Wiggle) and collected the lot in one easy transaction - so got the three best deals from one location without waiting for the postman.

I must add, I have never had a bad experience with Wiggle, or CRC, or the LBS... I have had 2 issues with Halfords on 2 Carrera bikes (not prepped properly on collection), bought one recently from them, it was fine - I now use another Halfords knowing the guys that work there are better.

... As for Sports Direct, awful place, awful products, cheapening of brands - really is poor ****, however I doubt the owner would "cheapen" the Evans brand, they do well enough already? Don't they?

paulneenan76

Rick Draper wrote:

paulneenan76 wrote:

Evans cycles are the number one bike retailer. They outdo CRC on-line - which surprised me - so I doubt very much Wiggle could be in with a shout.

What made you arrive at that conclusion?

Client.

Dick Scruttock

paulneenan76 wrote:

Rick Draper wrote:

paulneenan76 wrote:

Evans cycles are the number one bike retailer. They outdo CRC on-line - which surprised me - so I doubt very much Wiggle could be in with a shout.

What made you arrive at that conclusion?

Client.

Lack of funds or interest?

ilovedirt

paulneenan76 wrote:

Rick Draper wrote:

paulneenan76 wrote:

Evans cycles are the number one bike retailer. They outdo CRC on-line - which surprised me - so I doubt very much Wiggle could be in with a shout.

What made you arrive at that conclusion?

Client.

I'm almost 100% sure that's not true.

paulneenan76

Which part?

ilovedirt

paulneenan76 wrote:

Which part?

About Evans being the "number one bike retailer". Though I suppose that's a pretty ambiguous statement really. What do you actually mean by that?

Presumably you mean quantity of bikes they shift? In which case, yeah they probably are. But then they shift a lot of censored bikes, and the likes of CRC etc. probably don't sell as many. But in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't mean a lot, really. I'm fairly sure CRC bring in more money, as they're now a global company, have their own distribution network, and sell far more in the way of parts etc.

However if you mean they outdo CRC in terms of value of stock they shift online, I'm fairly sure you're mistaken.

Or do you mean quality of sales - people just think they're the best, for one reason or another?

edit: A quick check reveals that CRC's net worth is almost 5 times that of Evans, and Wiggle's is 6 times, at £4.9m, £23.9m, and £32m respectively. If Evans sell more online than CRC, I'll eat my own shoes, especially when you consider that ALL of CRCs sales are done online.

mike hunts alpine

ilovedirt wrote:

paulneenan76 wrote:

Which part?

About Evans being the "number one bike retailer". Though I suppose that's a pretty ambiguous statement really. What do you actually mean by that?

Presumably you mean quantity of bikes they shift? In which case, yeah they probably are. But then they shift a lot of censored bikes, and the likes of CRC etc. probably don't sell as many. But in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't mean a lot, really. I'm fairly sure CRC bring in more money, as they're now a global company, have their own distribution network, and sell far more in the way of parts etc.

However if you mean they outdo CRC in terms of value of stock they shift online, I'm fairly sure you're mistaken.

Or do you mean quality of sales - people just think they're the best, for one reason or another?

edit: A quick check reveals that CRC's net worth is almost 5 times that of Evans, and Wiggle's is 6 times, at £4.9m, £23.9m, and £32m respectively. If Evans sell more online than CRC, I'll eat my own shoes, especially when you consider that ALL of CRCs sales are done online.

Damn you compelling evidence I wanted to see gopro footage of you eating some 5:10s haha.

stubs

Never been into an Evans so cant comment on the shops. I have been into several Sports Direct shops and they are absolute hell holes, noisy, confusing, stink of BO and farts. Pasty faced blank eyed zombies who look like they want to die stagger around mumbling incoherently. The customers are just as bad.

The Rookie

Most people in sports direct have never played a sport in the last 10 years.....it's fashion clothing to most of them.

ilovedirt

I used to work in sports direct... Pretty censored place to work, but if you weren't really on the ball, you would get the boot pretty quickly! (or just not given more work)
Also mostly fatties shopping for XXXL polo shirts and kids buying trainers.

mikeyj28

RockmonkeySC wrote:

They couldn't dumb down my local Evans (Bristol). Half their staff don't ride and the others are roadies with no mountain bike knowledge. If Evans get worse it will help out small shops, people might start to realize that it's worth paying a little extra for a good shop.

I totally agree ..although you are giving credit to the half of the roadies who work there. Even they are lacking in the knowledge department with road or MTB. Very poor store and not cheap either.