Wiggle’s £180m takeover
An online retailer set up just over a decade ago to sell cycling accessories yesterday fetched £180m in a private equity takeover.
Portsmouth-based Wiggle now offers swimming and running clothes as well as bike gear and generated annual revenues of around £86m this year, compared with £11m in 2006.
It is being taken over by Bridgepoint, while the existing management team, including former Asda boss Andy Bond, is investing in the business. Private equity firm ISIS, which bought into Wiggle in 2006, sold its stake yesterday.
The Wiggle website attracts one million hits a week and more than 600,000 shoppers every year, but chief executive Humphrey Cobbold is looking forward to further expan- sion.