30-YEAR-OLD TO LEAD £150m SPORTSWEAR FIRM FLOAT

THE 30-year-old daughter of the founder of JD Sports is poised to become the youngest boss of a FTSE listed company.

Clare Nesbitt ( inset), chief executive of sports clothing chain Footasylum, is planning to steer it through a £150m stock market float when it lists on London’s junior market next month.

The 60-store company, which makes sportswear for 16-to-24-year-olds, was set up by JD Sports founders David Makin and John Wardle in 2005 and sells a mix of own-branded and third party clothing such as Nike and Calvin Klein. Popular in-house lines Kings Will Dream, Glorious Gangsta and Gym King ( pictured) also sell a range of apparel, footwear and accessories, at prices up to £75.

Nesbitt, Makin’s daughter, and her two siblings hold 90pc of the shares in Footasylum while Makin and Wardle hold 10pc.

The boss graduated from the University of Manchester with a 2.1 in Economics and joined the firm as a merchandising assistant in 2010, before becoming deputy chief executive in 2012. She stepped in to the top job in 2015.

It is understood the Makin family will remain the majority shareholders in Footasylum after its listing.

The company made £147m in sales last year and booked an operating profit of £11.2m.

Menswear is the bulk of sales, accounting for 71pc of revenue, while womenswear and childrenswear are 8pc and 18.5pc respectively. Nesbitt said: ‘We see substantial opportunities ahead across our retail, online and wholesale channels, and believe that we have the people, products and strategy to realise them.’