The ownership situation remains unsettled in the highly competitive British sporting goods retailing sector. JJB Sports’ stock market price went up a few days ago in the midst of a rumor that the UK’s largest sporting goods retailer may be acquired by a private equity company, said to be Permira, but the rumor was denied and the stock went down again. For its part, Mike Ashley’s Sports World International raised a few days ago to 16.22 percent its stake in the latter sporting goods retailer, which is controlled by Pentland Group. At the same time, Fidelity Investments lowered its own stake in John David to 3.52 percent.
Observers of the British sporting goods market cannot make sense of Ashley’s intentions, which may be financial and commercial at the same time. The secretive British entrepreneur had recently bought and sold large chuncks of shares in both JJB and John David, but he now owns less than 3.9 percent in JJB, Meanwhile, Sports World has now bought Gilesports, a British chain of 72 relatively small sporting goods stores founded in 1925 by Henry Giles. Now in its 4th generation as a family-owned enterprise, Gilesports has been run lately by Howard Giles as chairman, joined since 2001 by his son Andy as buying and merchandising director.
Based in Cardiff, Gilesports was reported one year ago to have nearly 100 stores in operation, primarily in Wales, West England and the Midlands. It also has six stores in the Northeast, bought from Dixon Sports in 2002. Rumors about Gilesports’ negotiations with Sports World surfaced in the British press last Spring, roughly at the same time as those concerning Ashley’s interest in another privately owned chain, Hargreaves, and in Allsports, which was subsequently bought by John David.
The unconfirmed bet is that Sports World will retain the Gilesports banner,while taking over the purchasing functions. Sports World, which is a buying partner of Sport 2000 International, already owns more than 200 stores in the UK under the Sports World, Sports Soccer and Lillywhites banners. It owns the former Disport chain in Belgium. As we reported in the previous issue of SGI Europe, Sports World got majority control last May of Sport 2000 Slovenia, which is considering an expansion into Croatia and other neighboring countries.
On the other hand, Sports World seems to be turning its back on a previous program to develop its suburban superstores in the UK. According to Drapers Record, a fashion magazine, it is putting up for sale 12 of its retail parks, due to rising rents at those locations, and it has appointed a property agent to seek out new urban locations for its stores.
