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news
Wiggle logoWiggle ponders move to Midlands
Online bike shop Wiggle is reported to be considering moving its warehouse facility from its home base in Portsmouth to the Midlands, as it has outgrown all the locally available storage space.
According to Claire French of the Portsmouth News, Wiggle says it is looking ouside the area as no properties on the market are large enough to meet its needs.
According to the paper, warehouse workers have been told a consultation process is underway and redundancies are possible if the firm decides to move its warehouse.
One Wiggle employee said that morale as low as warehouse staff felt it was unlikley they would have jobs this time next year. He said he was already looking for a new job, while some Wiggle staff were waiting to see what redundancy packages were offered.
Richard Boon, human resources director for Wiggle, told The News: "The exceptional growth of Wiggle has resulted in the need for more warehouse space than the current 95,000 sq ft.
"We now require warehouse space of around 300,000 sq ft to maintain our growth momentum.
"Wiggle has been unable to find suitable premises in the Portsmouth area for its needs.
"The Midlands is one of those options."
Boon added that it was unlikley any redundancies would be implemented before the summer of 2015 and Wiggle would consider relocating staff to any new site.
Local politicians concerned at the possible loss of jobs in Portsmouth have said they will try and help Wiggle find premises.
Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt said: "We are always looking at declassifying old Ministry of Defence sites and other public land across the region.
"We have a lot of office space here but spaces for storage and factory floors is at a premium."
Councillor Luke Stubbs, Portsmouth City Council’s cabinet member for planning, regeneration and economic development, also pledged to help Wiggle find a new warehouse.
He said: "Wiggle started as a bike shop in Portsmouth nearly a century ago.
"It would be a huge shame to lose them now and obviously the loss of jobs would be a heavy blow.
"The supply of warehouse space within Portsmouth itself is pretty much fixed, but there may be sites within the wider region."
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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36 comments
woo. I got Haribo today
With a seatpost, fwiw.
I can understand wiggles reasoning, I am from the midlands, there are a great deal of online retailers+shop retailers who have moved to the A38/A50/M6/M1 super junction, not to mention the new rail distribution hub that will be starting any time now. It makes total sense from a business point of view. And the size of the units are gargantuan to the extreme.
Bad for the people of Portsmouth, anyone losing their job through no fault of their own is awful, but I am sure many midlanders will welcome and benefit from the move. Not that that's any consolation.
They should come to Milton Keynes. There is loads of warehouse space and it's right next to the M1
Haribo? Is it just me who never ends up with this mythical freebie? I always seem to get a single hydration tab.
Stop buying small jerseys, buy XXL, they will get the message.
I've always associated the Haribo with when I buy parts. I guess they are to help with fettling? Along with a cup of tea/cool pint...
nah, I still get hydro tabs with bike parts. not half as much fun when fettling. Still - I can't imagine that the haribo would last until fettling time...
Why not just build something specific in the Portsmouth area? Surely the council would be over the moon at the largest Independent Online Cycle Retailer in the UK staying in their area bringing in Millions a year and lowering the unemployment figures.
Looks like to me they have already made their mind up that they are moving.
"Growth momentum" lol.
... and there we have the problem with the UK economy in a nutshell. We no longer have a massive manufacturing base that can employee large numbers of relatively unskilled workers a la shipbuilding, mining, steel production, car production (Nissan in Sunderland is the exception that proves the rule).
With the closure of the docks in Portsmouth this is another blow to local peoples employment opportunities.
I suspect as much as space is a problem the Midlands is desirable because of the major distribution network hubs being based there. They'll get a better deal from their chosen distribution partner (Shorter delivery chain, in and out), have a better choice of them and be able to have a later cut off time for next day delivery by being closer to a hub than on a small and congested island on the south coast at least 2 hours away from the distribution hubs.
It's expansion costs and customers service which is what we're all asking for from a major on-line retailer. Stock (lots of it & choices), cheap and quick. A real shame for the Portsmouth staff, I wouldn't want to be in their boots. It'll be the pickers etc which are likely to be dropped the more senior the better chance you have of a relocation if they want it.
The move should be good for the consumer, just not so for the staff and Portsmouth who jobs wise has taken a right kicking in recent years.
Oh and btw I'm from Southampton, you two up there grow up with all this Southampton Pompy nonsense
For example you have Milton Keynes and Amazon, and a fair few others, roughly central easy to get to motorways.
and a potential site to give an idea.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-to-let/property-45622207....
Not a bad idea, but a much better one would be to demolish the city of Southampton and build a f.big warehouse there. At least it would then be of use to the people of Portsmouth.
Surely Fratton Park is an ideal space for this. It currently employs 11 second-rate footballers and few admin staff. Relocate them to the Midlands and you've got the area the size of a, errr, football pitch...
Give it a year or so and with the defence cuts there will be a whole naval dockyard going spare.
Problem with the south, especially south of London, is the cost of the land and the building restrictions. Putting their warehouse in the centre of the UK would make sense given the road, rail and distribution infrastructure and there'll be loads of incentives for a business the size of Wiggle to move there. Just a shame that those who have helped it to grow will be those who get left behind.
Lots of talk about them coming to Staffordshire as there are new, huge, warehousing\distribution centres being built just outside Stafford by J14 of the M6.
Plenty of big companies have already moved in / signed deals.
I don't buy from Wiggle. Poor customer service a few years ago was the reason, so never again.
You're an idiot. Their customer service is ridiculously good.
Really ………. well it wasn't for me.
You ……… are the IDIOT.
Come on you lot there's no need for blind keyboard castigation. Opinion are allowed.
No - he is someone with a personal opinion and he's got the right to say so without being accused of being mentally inferior.
I always buy from Wiggle. Great customer service over the years means they are my first shop of call for everything.
They should consider moving to Pontefract where the Haribo UK HQ is. It's right next to the M62/M1 motorway network too. Job done!
The trouble is that developers stopped building speculative warehousing when the economy slowed down, the supermarkets took advantage of this and built more superstores.
Just across the road from Wiggle is a huge Tesco, so the land is (was) there, but not the willingness by developers to invest.
Still, I find it hard to believe that in the area where Wiggle are, there is not enough land to put a distribution centre up.
Lots of red faces at the local authority.
I suspect they want a ready built facility to move into, not build one of their own.
I understand that, but given they are talking about moving in summer 2015, that is more than enough time, given the land and a willing local authority, to get a warehouse and office well on it's way, if not finished, after all, it's just a huge slab of concrete with a steel framed building.
All it needs is for someone to pay for it... agh, yes, I see the flaw in my own argument.
The problem is always planning, the reality is companies such as (the defunct?) Easter have huge plots of land that they either build sheds on speculatively or try and get a few key clients and then build for them, on sale or lease basis depending on what suits. Due to the recession things are a bit messier than they used to be as some companies never made it so not totally sure what this means for their land banks and planning.
If Wiggle are serious about moving there are plenty of places they can pick.
sadly its not.
having recently been involved in a project that included a new building its a hugely long drawn out process.
and after that you have to get the internet connectivity sorted and for a new site BT are quite happy to quote a minimum of 6 months
maybe the New Forest authority could ask around with the locals?
no other reason for putting this story out there really
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