Nevisport, the Scottish-based outdoor retailer, will be able to expand rapidly over the next years following its acquisition by the owners of Trespass late last year. Afzal and Akmal Kushi, the brothers who are behind this Scottish brand of outdoor and winter sports clothing, estimate that there is space for about 10 to 15 more Nevisport stores in the UK.
Five Nevisport outlets were closed down last year when the retailer went into administration, a form of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leaving only six of them in Scotland and in the north of England. It was then reported that Mike Ashley, the owner of Sports Direct International (SDI), was gobbling up Nevisport, but the Kushis apparently placed a higher bid to save the Scottish retailer. It was formally acquired in October by Jacobs & Turner, the company that controls Trespass.
Established by two rock climbers in 1970, Nevisport is almost an institution among Scottish outdoor and winter sports enthusiasts, but it had been under-financed since Ian Sykes and Ian Sutherland, the two founders, sold it in a management buy-out a few years ago. Steady sales declines were worsened by last year’s warm winter, sinking the retailer in losses and debt.
The Kushi brothers have vowed to retain nearly all the 80 remaining jobs at Nevisport and to stick to the retailer’s high-end positioning. Trespass should not make up more than 10 percent of the product ranges offered at Nevisport. The new owners have fully restocked the stores, hired store designers to revamp them and invested more than £1.5 million (€2m-$3m) in information technology systems to improve stock controls. At least one of the stores that had been closed down as part of the bankruptcy proceedings is reopening. Once the adjusted store format is well-established, the brothers will strive to expand the network around the UK, particularly in the south where it is not represented.
