The story
The origins of 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.
Between 1999 and 2009, Wiggle experimented with online retail, and experienced strong growth.
By 2006, Wiggle was turning over £11.8m and Livingbridge private equity took a 42% stake in the company. After a further three years of 40% growth, Livingbridge bought the remaining 58% in 2009, including Dall's remaining 26% stake.
Livingbridge brought in Humphrey Cobbold as CEO in December 2009. By 2011, projected annual revenue was £118m following strong international growth helped by a weak pound.
In 2011, Livingbridge 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.
After an auction in December 2011, Wiggle was acquired by venture capitalists Bridgepoint Capital for £180m. Wiggle was now one of 6 European online sports retailers, and no 2 in the UK to Chain Reaction Cycles.
In September 2013, after the sale of the business, Cobbold stepped down and Stefan Barden (former CEO of Northern Foods) took over.
In 2015, Andy Bond stepped down and Brian McBride joined as chairman. McBride was formerly the CEO of Amazon UK and is the chairman of the online fashion clothing retailer ASOS.
From Wikipedia’s article on Wiggle (brand), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4