What a result... JD Sports leaves Ashley in shade
FIVE years ago Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley threatened to ‘finish off’ his main rival, JD Sports. But buoyant JD Sports is set to end the year worth almost twice as much as billionaire Ashley’s chain.
The success of JD Sports is a further blow to Ashley who has been under fire from critics this year but despite that defiantly ordered a £40million corporate jet even as profits slumped.
JD Sports, which is majority owned by Steve and Andy Rubin’s Pentland Group, overtook Sports Direct by value nine months ago.
It has been flourishing while Ashley’s chain has been accused of ‘Victorian workhouse’ practices, has seen weak trading and has been hit by a currency hedging blunder.
Last week, Sports Direct revealed that profits had nosedived 57 per cent to £72million.
In recent days, JD Sports, worth more than £3.2 billion, came a whisker away from doubling Sports Direct’s value. A further swing in the share price of a few pence would mark the achievement.
In 2011, Ashley – emboldened by the decline of JJB Sports – bragged at a meeting with representatives from the City: ‘I’ll finish off JJB first and then I’ll move on to JD.’
JJB Sports collapsed in 2012. Two years later JJB Sports chief executive Chris Ronnie was jailed for fraud.
Ronnie, also a former director at a Sports Direct subsidiary, is due to be released from prison this month.
Sports Direct has lurched from one public relations catastrophe to another this year. On Thursday, it levelled a broadside at politicians, the media and unions for ‘disproportionate, inaccurate and misleading commentary’ which has ‘impacted negatively’ on morale.
His company pledged to underwrite share awards due to vest next year despite the falling stock price. The scheme applies to at least half the estimated 4,000 permanent staff.
In an effort to appease the City and strengthen its board, Sports Direct appointed former Barclays director David Brayshaw as a nonexecutive director.
Brayshaw has posted his career details on business networking site LinkedIn with a picture of a Lego character in place of his photo.
One sportswear source said the revelation that Sports Direct was poised to take delivery of the jet within weeks was ‘beyond irony’.