Children’s bike brand Frog Bikes could be rescued from administration by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, according to reports.
Frog Bikes filed to appoint administrators last month following “a series of significant challenges” and two weeks later news trickled through of redundancies at the firm, which maintains a factory in Pontypool and an office in Ascot. The company’s latest set of accounts, through to the end of February 2025, are also now overdue according to Companies House.
> Redundancies at Frog Bikes after popular children’s bike brand files to appoint administrators
The brand, like much of the bike industry, enjoyed a boom in demand during the pandemic but subsequently blamed Brexit and rising employment costs for their financial difficulty, despite at one point being touted by the Conservative government as a post-Brexit success story. At the time of the administration filing, the Frog Bikes said it was seeking “a strategic investment partner aligned with the long-term vision and values of the brand.”
2025-Frog-Road-67-top-tube-detail.jpg (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)
Sky News’ Mark Kleinman reports that Frog Bikes’ administrators have set a deadline of tomorrow (Thursday 19th March) for final bids to be tabled and that Frasers Group is among them, although a spokesperson for the group declined to comment.
The move would not be the first foray into the British cycling industry for Ashley, best known for his Sports Direct brand and his former ownership of Newcastle United Football Club. Frasers Group acquired Evans Cycles in 2018, and purchased Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles in 2024.
The proposed acquisition would also give Frasers Group another in-house cycling brand, joining the likes of Pinnacle and Vitus which were Evans and Wiggle CRC’s own product lines prior to their acquisition. However, the Frog Bikes bid, if successful, would likely result in large-scale job losses among the brand’s remaining employees.
> Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group reportedly buys Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles for less than £10 million
The Frasers Group’s acquisition of Wiggle CRC resulted in all 447 employees losing their jobs as the brand and its stock was folded into the rest of Frasers’ retail empire. Similar moves were made when acquiring online retailer ProBikeKit in 2023, which prioritised gaining the company’s stock and intellectual property assets. Meanwhile the £8 million purchase of Evans Cycles in 2018 saw all remaining employees moved onto zero-hour contracts.