Bankrupt Saris Acquired by C+A

This one has been dragging on for a few months but now appears to have finally come to a conclusion.

UK readers will be humoured by Saris’s acquirer…C+A as C&A was a large, UK-high street clothes retailer that closed in 2001.

C+A Global – based in New Jersey, USA

C+A Global has a wide-ranging portfolio of brands including Kodak photo printers, outdoor toys and pet products. On paper (Kodak printing paper?), it looks to be far from an ideal buyer for Saris.

C+A does have some history in the cycling industry as it makes and distributes bike racks, trainers, storage racks, public bike systems, and other cycling infrastructure. However, my initial opinion was that Saris appeared to be a very strange addition.

Looking closely at the full portfolio of the services offered by Saris, we can see that they too offer cycling racks/infrastructure. My suspicion is that the acquisition via the recent auction has little to do with Saris bike trainers and more about Saris’s other products.

My original guess was that Saris was going to be acquired by Zwift. Whilst that guess was clearly wrong it still may well be the case that C+A divests the smart trainer part of the business in a more controlled sale in 2023 and perhaps someone like SRAM or Zwift may well end up as the eventual owner. Time will tell.

Maybe this story has more time to run after all?