ChainReactionCycles is a major global success story based in Ireland and also sponsors a large number of Irish riders and events including Sean Kelly's An Post-ChainReaction.
The biggest cycling success ever on the island of Ireland, ChainReactionCycles looks set to be bought up by its UK-based rival Wiggle.
Is was unclear whether the takeover of the company would have any negative impact on the sponsorship deals ChainReactionCycles has in place in Irish road and off-road cycling.
Among those is the company’s sponsorship of Sean Kelly’s Continental-level road team An Post-Chainreaction.
The influential business media outlet BikeBiz was first with the story, which is spreading to the mainstream media though neither company has commented.
BikeBiz has reported the sale is imminent and may even go through next week.
Wiggle’s story is similar to ChainReactionCycles in that it was founded as an offshoot of a bike shop - Butlers Cycles in Portsmouth – before being bought by Bridgepoint Capital five years ago.
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ChainReactionCycles was founded as Ballynure Cycles in 1984 by George and Janice Watson in the village of Ballynure in Co Antrim.
The Watson family is still heavily involved in the company, with the founders’ son Chris Watson the current managing director.
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Last year Barclay’s Bank published a study putting the Watson family on Northern Ireland’s rich list with a fortune of £155 million.
In the early days the company expanded from its retail model into catalogues where customers could order and receive their goods via the postal service.
This model left them ideally placed to take advantage of the exponentially growing internet at the turn of the millennium, with chainreactioncycles.com launched in 2000 and growing hugely since then.
It now runs a 10,000 sq ft flagship store in Belfast and a second store in Ballyclare, Co Antrim, where its main warehouse is located.
Around 40 per cent of the company’s sales are generated outside the EU and in 2014 it reported profits of £3.77 million on sales of £153.4 million.
The only cycling retailer with higher sales is Wiggle, which reported an increase of 11.5 per cent to £179 million in 2014.
How do they do it?
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