Sports direct hitting the cycling market

warrior4life

There's a rumour out there that sports direct are buying a good sized UK cycling brand.
Could be very interesting if it's true.

Thick Mike

They will probably trade on the good name while running the quality downhill for as long as they can get away with it...see Karrimor

figbat

There has been speculation since at least 2007 that they were after Evans Cycles... is that it?

daniel_b

Oh please no, that would be spectacularly bad.

MiddleRinger

Thick Mike wrote:

They will probably trade on the good name while running the quality downhill for as long as they can get away with it...see Karrimor

^^^ This. It's a real shame to see. Sports Direct buy a brand, then sell poor quality gear under the name for super cheap. What's the rumoured company?

bendertherobot

They were always looking at Evans. But perhaps they might consider the Sports Direct of the Bike world?

Garry H

bendertherobot wrote:

They were always looking at Evans. But perhaps they might consider the Sports Direct of the Bike world?

That's what I was thinking when i read this.

meanredspider

Garry H wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

They were always looking at Evans. But perhaps they might consider the Sports Direct of the Bike world?

That's what I was thinking when i read this.

Evans aren't great but they aren't THAT bad :shock:

bendertherobot

I'm not convinced SD need more stores but they do need product. And PX may be a very good fit in that respect.

Garry H

bendertherobot wrote:

I'm not convinced SD need more stores but they do need product. And PX may be a very good fit in that respect.

Given that they follow a broadly similar business model

Anonymous

Whats the deal in not saying what the rumour is exactly?

Sports direct and Evans have the same attitude to staff, so would be an easy transition.

Garry H

Carbonator wrote:

Whats the deal in not saying what the rumour is exactly?

Sports direct and Evans have the same attitude to staff, so would be an easy transition.

My initial thought was that it was PX, rather than Evans

Anonymous

I thought it was a brand rather than retailer?

Garry H

Carbonator wrote:

I thought it was a brand rather than retailer?

Raleigh? Claud Butler? Saracen? Is tha what you mean?

I thought that PX would fit in more naturally, given that they have already bought other brand names.

Beatmaker

I thought PX too. For Karrimor, Lonsdale and Donnay see Titus, Viner and Tomac.

Sutton_Rider

They won't get my business. A bunch of con artists and the way they treat there staff. I'd rather pay more and get it from someone else.

letap73

Correct if I am wrong but the Sports Direct main headquarters is Shirebrook near Worksop. In which case Planet X would be a good fit as their main headquarters is nearby Rotherham.

charlie_potatoes

I blame wiggle

Beatmaker

They won't get my business. A bunch of con artists and the way they treat there staff. I'd rather pay more and get it from someone else.

You probably need to clarify which company you are referring to, both have a pretty crummy reputation with a lot of people.

cookeeemonster

Didn't Planet X recently sack half their workforce and re-employ them via an agency to save costs? (lets assume, for the sake of argument, they are now worse off than before).

Trying to impress their new soon to be owner?

sniper68

CookeeeMonster wrote:

Didn't Planet X recently sack half their workforce and re-employ them via an agency to save costs? (lets assume, for the sake of argument, they are now worse off than before).

Trying to impress their new soon to be owner?

Planet-X have been doing this for years.
They're in trouble.Their US warehouse "caught fire" and they closed their Edinburgh and now Barnsley shops.
They bought every brand that was in trouble,SAB/Holdsworth/Titus and Viner and basically turned the frames Into Planet-X frames with Viner etc badges on them.
I know several employees and ex-employees and they are not a good company to work for.
It would make sense for SD to buy them as they wouldn't have to make any changes.

andcp

More on PX- http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/brexit ... t-x/020270

chippyk

ibbo68 wrote:

CookeeeMonster wrote:

Didn't Planet X recently sack half their workforce and re-employ them via an agency to save costs? (lets assume, for the sake of argument, they are now worse off than before).

Trying to impress their new soon to be owner?

Planet-X have been doing this for years.
They're in trouble.Their US warehouse "caught fire" and they closed their Edinburgh and now Barnsley shops.
They bought every brand that was in trouble,SAB/Holdsworth/Titus and Viner and basically turned the frames Into Planet-X frames with Viner etc badges on them.
I know several employees and ex-employees and they are not a good company to work for.
It would make sense for SD to buy them as they wouldn't have to make any changes.

Hardly in trouble but certainly not performing well. The last I looked they were making a small profit/small loss on about 20m sales which, unless they're reinvesting in R&D or paying off debt, isn't good enough. It's normal they're looking to shed costs especially with the weak pound which will push their costs up as I assume they make nowt in the UK. So two scenarios, a) a business looking to make sure it remains floating in fiscal choppy waters or b) a business looking to improve its balance sheet to be sold.

FWIW, PX doesn't fit SD's history of buying distressed but relatively well known brand names. Kai, Courtnee, Lexi-Mae and Kayden won't know who f*** PX are if they saw them. If Halfords decided to ditch the Carrera brand name, that would fit, Saracen and Raleigh, already mentioned, maybe Dawes.

Off topic, I once flew in Mike Ashley's helicopter from the Midlands to Yorkshire and back to take in two football games as a guest of the FA.

chippyk

Looking at their accounts, cost of sales is about 14m of their 18m ish t/o. It's going to include things other than buying all their stock from China, but let's assume for simplicity 10m of that is and that there's been a 5% shift in the Renminbi, that's half a million quid hit on a profit of 100k. That's the reason for the economy drive IMO.

rolf_f

ChippyK wrote:

FWIW, PX doesn't fit SD's history of buying distressed but relatively well known brand names. Kai, Courtnee, Lexi-Mae and Kayden won't know who f*** PX are if they saw them.

+1. Stick a load of PX bikes in a Sports Direct and who buys them? We won't. The public will if they are cheap enough but the name would be an irrelevance. From Sports Directs perspective, Wilco Motosave (some lovely bikes there!) would be a better brand to target.

MiddleRinger

I saw a handful of Planet X road bikes for sale in TK Maxx once.

Do hope that Sports Direct don't buy and start selling Planet X branded bikes/gear. How will I ever be able to ride my PX TT bike in public again? Yo nice ride, where did you get those sweet wheels? Sports Direct, bruv?

ChippyK wrote:

Kai, Courtnee, Lexi-Mae and Kayden won't know who f*** PX are if they saw them.

Hahaha!

daniel_b

MiddleRinger wrote:

I saw a handful of Planet X road bikes for sale in TK Maxx once.

Do hope that Sports Direct don't buy and start selling Planet X branded bikes/gear. How will I ever be able to ride my PX TT bike in public again?

Respray!

cookeeemonster

Sports direct already sell bikes or in reality, BSO's. I'm assuming they'd continue with this and have planet x as a separate business but run to their business model - no change then :P

People don't go to sports direct shops to spend £800 on anything, even all carbon ultegra blah blah blah

rolf_f

CookeeeMonster wrote:

Sports direct already sell bikes or in reality, BSO's. I'm assuming they'd continue with this and have planet x as a separate business but run to their business model - no change then :P

People don't go to sports direct shops to spend £800 on anything, even all carbon ultegra blah blah blah

But that's not how Sports Direct works. It buys up a brand with a reputation and then sticks that brand on the cheapest crap it can find. It basically rips people off buy conning them into thinking that the product they are buying is something that the original company might have produced when in fact it is something grossly inferior. On that model, they'd be sticking PX branding on Apollos.

Sutton_Rider

Beatmaker wrote:

They won't get my business. A bunch of con artists and the way they treat there staff. I'd rather pay more and get it from someone else.

You probably need to clarify which company you are referring to, both have a pretty crummy reputation with a lot of people.

SD

daniel_b

CookeeeMonster wrote:

Sports direct already sell bikes or in reality, BSO's. I'm assuming they'd continue with this and have planet x as a separate business but run to their business model - no change then :P

People don't go to sports direct shops to spend £800 on anything, even all carbon ultegra blah blah blah