Leisure Lakes Bikes joins Wheelbase under JD Sports Group ownership

The JD Sports group‘s extensive bike and outdoor industry reach will further broaden with the acquisition of bike retail giant XLR8 Sports, trading as Leisure Lakes Bikes.

Companies House records amended this week give just some of the detail, most notably that the JD Sports Fashion CEO, Peter Cowgill and Chief Financial Officer of JD Sports, Neil Greenhalgh, are now directors of the bicycle retail business. Records show that founding family member Timothy Noy is no longer a director, nor are Iain and Mark Noy. The registered address of the business has likewise changed to reflect the head office of JD Sports Fashion PLC.

Leisure Lakes Bikes operates out of ten UK stores, but also carries a well-regarded online presence. The ten branches span the UK, but are particularly clustered in the north, with five branches dotted between Manchester, Leeds and the Yorkshire Dales.

Leisure Lakes Bikes has remained a family run business since it 1981 roots when the Noy brothers (Tim and Chris) set up shop.

The business began as a windsurfing shop pitched at Leisure Lakes, mid-way between Southport and Preston. From there stores popped up in Bury, then Daventry and Nottingham, marking the start of the millennium with the fifth branch at Cheltenham. Online retailing began for the firm in 2003 and in more recent history the shop has branched heavily into electric bikes to become one of the UK’s largest retailers of pedal assisted units.

“When the wind was down, people brought their bikes to go cycling instead, and from there the Brothers started selling bikes themselves,” writes the website on the firm’s history.

The portfolio addition gives the JD Group yet another bicycle industry foothold, adding to a portfolio that has long been the parent to Tiso’s Alpine Bikes, but most recently saw the addition of the Wheelbase business, which is a mail order specialist with three physical branches.

Alongside this, and arguably more significant in presence, the group reacquired outdoor giant Go Outdoors in June of 2020, itself a retailer of cycling goods and services. Further still, JD Sport’s parent the ISRG Group holds an 80% stake in Depor Village, which has grown to become one of Europe’s largest online sports retailers.