Ribble

bendertherobot

Sold to Venture Capitalists.

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/ribble-cycles-acquired-by-retail-investment-firm/018720

Interesting timing. Had it been the case that C2W went in the spending review today that would have been a dodgy purchase, potentially, depending on how many C2W bikes they do. As it is the spending review promises to look carefully at salary sacrifice.

ugo.santalucia

Good time to sell... the boom is over and you start seeing more businesses closing than those opening

Anonymous

wiggle has been in PE ownership for a while and was recently sold (2 y or so)

bobmcstuff

I'd think they probably do quite a lot of C2W bikes - between them and Dolan they are a popular choice for winter/commuting bikes and you can get a pretty good spec for less than the C2W maximum. I know a fair few people who have one on C2W anyway.

PE ownership doesn't seem to have been bad for Wiggle in any case.

evs78

Evans also owned by PE now. Think the deal was done in first half of this year. Lots of other independent businesses in the sector looking to do something while the market is still good for cycling and lots of private equity money around chasing very few deals in general.