Garmin owed $1 million in the UK by Bankrupt Wiggle

Wiggle is a UK-based online retailer that recently went into administration (bankruptcy) last October. Their parent company, Signa, denied them further funding which caused a lack of cash flow. An administrator was appointed to wind down the company or sell its assets to pay off creditors.

New documents show how much Wiggle owed to all its creditors. The amount owed to Garmin was exactly £853,762.10, which is almost $1.1 million. This was about 3% of the total debt owed by Wiggle.

Garmin has $1.42 billion in the bank, so while the amount owed is significant, it has zero impact on Garmin’s financial well-being.

Other cycling industry companies faced differing degrees of impact from amounts owed. Some that stood out include:

• Zyro Fischer (£290k)
• Saddleback (£815k)
• Madison (£1,095k)
• Ideal Bike (£1,291k)
• Axman Enterprises (£1,616k)

Smaller but still notable brands owed include:

• POC (£507k)
• Upgrade Bikes (£595k)
• SiS (£663k)
• Kask (£261k)
• Extra UK (£957k)
• Cambrian Tyres (£355k)
• Bicycle Line (£421k)
• Assos (£256k)
• AB Sports Nutrition (£557k)
• Zone3 (£628k)

Bike computer and sports watch companies like Hammerhead, Polar and Wahoo were each owed around £15k. This was likely not a major burden for those larger companies. Suunto’s debt could not be found, as they are now owned by a Chinese company.

Thoughts

We don’t need to shed a tear for Garmin who will go on to sell millions more watches and bike computers.

However, writing this type of article is somewhat depressing when you read through the list of companies that are owed large amounts of money by a company that was presumably mismanaged. Many, many, many smaller suppliers that I did not mention will be very significantly impacted by debts that will not be paid back in full. Having owned businesses myself, taking on the risk of not being paid is something that business owners accept, but the impacts on employees can be life-changing – Abbey Cleaning of Wolverhampton (owed £22k) stands out in my mind. As a local company, £22k was likely a relatively large debt for them. They may have been taken advantage of as that debt built up, who knows? If suppliers like them stop operating due to not being repaid, it will change the lives of their employees through job losses and salaries not paid.

It’s also worth noting that the documents I saw were filed at the UK’s Companies House in late 2023. Since then Wiggle is reported to have had good trading results in its late-year sale. Undoubtedly some creditors will have had some of their debts repaid. It’s also worth noting that the government and administrators WILL get their money first as debts are repaid in this order:

• Liquidator fees and expenses
• Secured creditors with a fixed charge
• Preferential creditors
• Secured creditors with a floating charge
• Unsecured creditors
• Connected unsecured creditors
• Shareholders