The UK's second biggest PC retailer, Ebuyer, has been bought out of administration by Frasers Group, the entity founded by Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley, which runs House of Fraser, Flannels, Jack Wills, Game, and a range of other businesses. This news follows the surprise closure of the business last week, when staff were unexpectedly sent home early, and the doors to the offices closed.
Ebuyer is a bit of an institution within the UK's PC enthusiast space. Founded in 2000, the site was well known for offering a wide selection of DIY components and pre-built systems, and competed with the likes of Scan and Overclockers UK for customers. It even expanded during the pandemic when PC and component sales picked up, but it's faced a downturn in sales ever since, and increasing competition has seen it fail to retain profitability.
So, now it's under new management. But longtime fans may not be happy about the move.
The news broke about the Frasers Group investment just yesterday, but already the Ebuyer website has been overhauled. It did initially feature a "Coming soon" message with a clickable link through to Fraser Group property, Studio, which sells garden furniture, sports apparel, and home gadgets. That has since been removed, though the Ebuyer website still looks very different and promotes kitchen appliances as much as PC components.
It's also been flooded with a range of products from brands that don't typically feature prominently in the DIY PC space. Balenciaga phone cases of every description seem particularly prevalent. There are also cheap items of furniture, vacuum cleaners, and bathroom mirrors, as well as air fryers, hair straighteners, and Funko pops. Either due to categorization issues or by design, the site's PC component section is now empty, and simple searches for parts like CPUs, GPUs, or brands such as Nvidia, AMD, or Intel turn up no results.
Administrator FRP Advisory has taken over the administrative process as part of the transition to the new owners. FRP Advisory partner Tony Wright said in a statement: “Frasers Group has an established record of successfully taking retail brands forward and unlocking their potential. eBuyer is a recognised name in the consumer technology space, and this transaction provides a platform it can use to reestablish its position as one of the UK’s largest PC components retailers.”
Frasers Group officially no longer boasts Ashley as either CEO or board member, but a March Guardian report claimed he still calls the shots behind the scenes. The group and Ashley have a checkered track record of business, which includes allegations of misconduct at his Sports Direct warehouses. Famously, he is reported to have hosted a management meeting in a pub, where he drank 12 pints before vomiting into a fireplace.
While fans will await what is an uncertain future for Ebuyer, the site itself joins a long list of UK-based PC and component retailers who have shut up shop in recent years. Box entered administration in January 2024, and both system builder Chillblast and tech electronics company CCL have changed hands several times in recent years in an attempt to maintain their viability.
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