Sports Direct boss ‘drank 12 pints and vodka in meeting’
Staff ‘clapped as he was sick in pub fireplace’
SPORTS Direct boss Mike Ashley held a management meeting in a pub where he knocked back 12 pints of lager and vodka chasers before throwing up in a fireplace, a court has heard.
Details about the way the billionaire Newcastle United owner conducts his sportswear business were laid bare in court yesterday as an ex-employee claimed heavy drinking sessions were held in pubs to encourage senior staff to ‘speak more freely’.
Jeffrey Blue – who is suing Mr Ashley for reneging on an alleged £15million drink-fuelled pay deal – described how the 52-year-old would ply senior staff with alcohol during meetings at a pub near Sports Direct’s head office in Shirebrook, Derbyshire.
‘These meetings were like no other senior management meeting I had ever attended,’ he said. ‘It was effectively a lock-in with alcohol continuing to be served well beyond closing hours, and fish and chips or kebabs provided.
‘On one such evening, in front of his senior management team, Mr Ashley challenged a young Polish analyst in my team, Pawel Pawlowski, to a drinking competition.
‘Mr Ashley and Pawel would drink pints of lager, with vodka chasers between each pint, and the first to leave the bar area for whatever reason was declared the loser. After approximately 12 pints and chasers, Pawel apologised profusely and had to excuse himself.
‘Mr Ashley then vomited into the fireplace located in the centre of the bar, to huge applause from his senior management team.’ The details emerged as Mr Blue, who was working for investment bank Merrill Lynch when he first met Mr Ashley in 2006, sued the tycoon over claims he did not stick to their £15million agreement.
Mr Blue helped steer Sports Direct through to its float on the stock market in 2007, before joining the firm in 2012.
His lawsuit stems from a boozy meeting at the Horse and Groom pub near Sports Direct’s central London store in 2013, during which he claims that Mr Ashley agreed to pay him £15million if he could help double the firm’s share price within three years, which it did the following year.
Mr Ashley is alleged to have said it would be ‘ f*** ing unbelievable’ for Sports Direct’s shares to hit that level as it would have meant the group was worth as much as Marks & Spencer.
He added: ‘ Mr Ashley was like no other client. His ability to express boredom and frustration during meetings knew no limits, including episodes where he would lie underneath meeting room tables to have a nap.’
The businessman denied the existence of the deal and refused to pay up, dismissing everything discussed in the pub as ‘banter’.
During his witness statement, Mr Blue described how Mr Ashley would regularly conduct alcohol- fuelled meetings in informal settings, including the ground floor bar area of a London casino. He also claimed Mr Ashley proposed to resolve an issue over the reimbursement of Merrill Lynch’s legal fees with a game of spoof.
When Mr Blue was asked why he had not made sure there was a written record of the £15million agreement, he said he believed the businessman was a ‘man of his word’ and that it was only later he learnt Mr Ashley was a ‘man that cannot be trusted’.
David Cavender QC, for Mr Ashley, told the judge that Mr Blue’s claim was an ‘opportunistic try- on’ adding the suggestion that Mr Ashley had made such an agreement ‘over a heavy drinking session at a pub’ was ‘remarkable’.
Mr Ashley is due to take the stand tomorrow.
‘Fish, chips and kebabs’