Frasers Group to table bid for kids' cycle maker Frog Bites - report

(Sharecast News) - Mike Ashley's Frasers Group is reportedly preparing to table a bid this week for children's cycle maker Frog Bites, which collapsed into administration earlier this month. According to Sky News, FRP Advisory, the administrator, has been running a sale process for the last couple of weeks, and is said by retail industry sources to have set a deadline of tomorrow for offers.

One retail executive told Sky that other, unnamed bidders were also in contention to buy Frog Bikes.

If Frasers is successful, it would be the latest in a string of acquisitions engineered by Mike Ashley.

Then known as Sports Direct, Frasers bought Evans Cycles out of administration in 2018, a deal which preserved roughly half of its 62 stores. The company has also snapped up brands such as the Savile Row tailor Gieves & Hawkes, Jack Wills and House of Fraser.

Earlier this month, it emerged that Frasers had taken a 5.8% stake in German sportswear company Puma.

Founded in Ascot in 2013 by husband and wife Jerry and Shelley Lawson, Frog Bikes has sold more than half a million bikes since it was founded. The company has a 120,000sq ft warehouse and production facility at Pontypool in Wales.