JD Sports

JD Sports Fashion plc, commonly known as JD Sports, JD or JD Group[3] is a British sports-fashion retail company based in Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The Pentland Group owns 55% of the company.[4]

Not to be confused with JD.com.

JD Sports Fashion plc
TypePublic limited company
LSE: JD.
FTSE 100 component
IndustryRetail
Founded1981 (1981)
FoundersJohn Wardle
David Makin
HeadquartersBury, Greater Manchester, England, UK
Number of locations
3,400 stores (31 July 2022)[1]
Area served
International
Key people
Andy Higginson (Chairman)
Régis Schultz (Chief Executive Officer)
ProductsClothing
Sportswear Accessories
RevenueIncrease £8,563.0 million (2022)[2]
Increase £721.2 million (2022)[2]
Increase £459.6 million (2022)[2]
OwnerPentland Group (55%)
Aberforth Partners (10%)
Fidelity Management (5%)
Peter Cowgill (CEO) (1%)
Other Minor Shareholders (29%)
Number of employees
44,488 (2022)[2]
Subsidiaries
  • Aktiesport
  • Blacks
  • Bodytone
  • Chausport
  • Down Town Locker Room
  • Exercise4Less
  • Finish Line, Inc.
  • Fishing Republic
  • Footpatrol
  • Get The Label
  • GO Outdoors
  • JD Gyms
  • JD Sports
  • Mainline
  • Millets
  • Nice Kicks
  • Perry Sport
  • Shoe Palace
  • Size?
  • Sportzone
  • Sprinter
  • Tiso
  • The Hip Store
  • Ultimate Outdoors
Websitejdplc.com

History

The company was established by John Wardle and David Makin (hence the name JD), trading from a single shop in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 1981.[5] The company opened a store in the Arndale Centre in Manchester in 1983.[6] Pentland Group bought Wardle's and Makin's shares for £44.6M in May 2005,[7] so acquiring 45% of the business.[8]

Acquisitions

Early acquisitions of stores included 209 stores with the acquisition of First Sport from Blacks Leisure Group in December 2001[9] and 70 stores from the administrators of Allsports in October 2005.[6] Subsequent acquisitions of businesses included:

  • Bank Stores, which sold fashion clothing, for around £19M in December 2007[10]
  • Champion Sports for €19.6M in January 2011[11]
  • Blacks Leisure Group out of administration for £20 million in January 2012[12]
  • the streetwear clothing brand, FLY53, in February 2012[13]
  • the brand Tessuti in 2016, later acquired by the Frasers Group in 2022.[14]
  • Cloggs, a shoe retailer, out of administration, in February 2013[15]
  • part ownership of the Leeds-based trainer retailer, The Hip Store, in May 2014[16]
  • Clothingsites.co.uk with its websites, Woodhouse Clothing[17] and Brown Bag Clothing[18] in September 2016[19]
  • Go Outdoors for £112 million in November 2016[20]
  • the US-based retailer, Finish Line for $558 million in March 2018[21][22]
  • the retailer, Footasylum, for £90 million in March 2019[23]
  • Shoe Palace for $325 million in December 2020[24]
  • DTLR for $360 million in March 2021[25]

In addition, the company acquired the rugby heritage brands 'Canterbury' and 'Canterbury of New Zealand' as well as 'The Duffer of St. George' and 'Kooga Rugby' brands.[6]

International operations

The company acquired Chausport, which operated 75 small stores in France, in May 2009. It opened its first store in Malaysia in January 2016.[26] The company acquired an 80% stake in the Australian retailer Next Athleisure for A$6.6 million in late 2016.[27] This was followed by the opening of more stores in Australia in April 2017,[28] in South Korea in April 2018,[29] in Singapore in May 2018[30] and in Thailand in November 2018.[31] The company also acquired 80% of Cosmos Sport, based in Crete, in December 2021[32] and has launched a joint venture in Indonesia with a store opened in 2022.[33] In August 2023, it was announced JD Sports had acquired the remaining 40% of shares in the Krakow-headquartered footwear and clothing retail chain, Marketing Investment Group. JD Sports acquired the first 60% in April 2021.[34]

Sponsorship

JD Sports is the official supplier and sponsor of association football teams, players and associations. In August 2008, JD Sports announced sponsorship deals with AFC Bournemouth, Charlton Athletic, Dundee United, Blackpool, Luton Town & Oldham Athletic.[35]

Controversies

Mistreatment of staff

The company has been the subject of accusations of mistreatment of its UK warehouse staff, with comparisons being made to Victorian "dark satanic mills" and "prison" conditions in 2016 and 2019.[36][37][38]

Go Outdoors

The company pushed its subsidiary, Go Outdoors, into administration in June 2020[39] but then bought it back from administrators with the creditors losing much of their money.[40]

Alleged breaches of competition law

The company along with Leicester City were placed under investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) due to alleged breaches in competition law in September 2021. The investigation was in regard to anti-competitive agreements over the sale of club branded merchandise in the UK. Both JD Sports and Leicester City said they were 'fully cooperating' with the CMA.[41][42][43][44]

Covert meetings between the Chief Executive Officers of JD Sports and Footasylum

After the company acquired Footasylum in March 2019, the CMA carried out an investigation and then, on the basis that the company's ownership of Footasylum might limit competition, ordered the company to dispose of Footasylum.[45] The company and, its subsidiary, Footasylum, were fined a combined £4.7 million after the CEO of JD Sports, Peter Cowgill, allegedly met covertly with the CEO of Footasylum, Barry Bown, on two occasions in July and August 2021 in breach of an order from the CMA not to exchange commercially sensitive information without CMA consent. One of the meetings was alleged to have taken place in a car park in Bury, Greater Manchester.[46][47][48]

References
  1. "JD Sports Total Number of Stores".
  2. "Annual Report 2022" (PDF). JD Sports. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  3. "New distribution warehouse, Rochdale". Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  4. "Pentland sells £177m stake in JD Sports". Drapers Online. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  5. Stevenson, Rachel (7 July 2004). "JD Sports founder sells 11per cent stake to firm behind Speedo". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  6. "History". jdplc.com. Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  7. "JD Sports founders sell out for £44.6m". London: Times Online. 5 November 2007.
  8. Finch, Julia (12 May 2005). "JD Sports founders cash in and quit with £45m". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  9. Beech, John; Chadwick, Simon (2006). The Marketing of Sport. Financial Times International. p. 375. ISBN 978-0-273-68826-6.
  10. "John David Group makes a Bank statement". Yorkshire Post. 11 December 2007.
  11. "JD Sports set to acquire Champion Sports for €20m". Irish Examiner. 26 January 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  12. "Blacks Leisure sold for £20m while La Senza finds buyer". BBC News. 9 January 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  13. "JD Sports acquires FLY53". Insider Media Limited. 15 February 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  14. "JD's Tessuti deal spells the end for Cecil Gee". Drapers on line. 16 June 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  15. "JD Sports Fashion acquires Cloggs". Manchester Evening News. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  16. Bearne, Suzanne (13 May 2014). "JD Sports Fashion invests in Leeds indie The Hip Store". Drapers. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  17. "Men's Designer Clothes, Shoes & Accessories | Woodhouse". Woodhouseclothing.com. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  18. "Brown Bag Clothing | Men's Cheap Designer Clothing". Bbclothing.co.uk. 27 January 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  19. "Final Results â€" Company Announcement". Markets.ft.com. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  20. "Britain's JD Sports buys Go Outdoors for 112 million pounds". Reuters. 28 November 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  21. Al-Muslim, Aisha (26 March 2018). "UK Retailer JD Sports Fashion to Buy Finish Line for About $558 Million". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  22. Costello, Miles (26 March 2018). "JD Sports hits the ground running with Finish Line takeover deal". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  23. "JD Sports expresses fury over CMA's final ruling to sell Footasylum". Retail Gazette. 4 November 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  24. "JD Sports buys Shoe Palace for $325 million to expand U.S. footprint". Reuters. 15 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  25. Retail Gazette (18 March 2021). "JJD Sports completes £360m acquisition of DTLR". RetailGazette. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  26. Su, Reon (28 January 2016). "JD Sports Fashion opens its first Malaysian outlet". MAXIT. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  27. Dagge, John (6 July 2018). "'King of trainers' JD Sports eye Perth market". The West Australian. Archived from the original on 16 January 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  28. Powell, Dominic (26 April 2017). "JD Sports looks to unlock "athleisure" niche with Aussie store launch tomorrow". SmartCompany. Archived from the original on 16 January 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  29. "JD Sports to open first store in South Korea". 26 March 2018.
  30. Tan, Dylan (30 May 2018). "Sneakerheads rejoice, Singapore will have not one but two JD outlets with the first already opened in Jurong". Business Insider Singapore. Archived from the original on 16 January 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  31. "JD Sports to open first store in Thailand at Iconsiam". The Nation. 17 October 2018. Archived from the original on 17 October 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  32. Riaz, Saleha (22 October 2021). "JD Sports buys 80% stake in Greece's Cosmos Sports". Yahoo Finance.
  33. "Erajaya Active Lifestyle Announces A Joint Venture with JD Sports Fashion plc". Erajaya Active Lifestyle Announces A Joint Venture with JD Sports Fashion plc. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  34. "JD Sports acquires remaining 40% stake in Polish business to accelerate expansion | TheBusinessDesk.com". North West. 8 August 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  35. "Oldham Athletic announce JD Sports Carbrini sponsor deal". Football Shirt Culture. 6 August 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  36. "'Prison' conditions at JD Sports: undercover investigation". Channel 4 News. 14 December 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  37. "JD Sports and Asos warehouses like 'dark satanic mills'". BBC. 7 May 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  38. "JD Sports and Asos warehouses compared to 'dark satanic mills' amid concerns over working conditions". The Independent. 9 May 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  39. "JD Sports' Go Outdoors brand likely to enter administration in days". The Guardian. 21 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  40. "JD Sports buys back Go Outdoors after pushing it into administration". Sky News. 23 June 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  41. "Suspected anti-competitive behaviour in relation to the sale of Leicester City FC-branded products and merchandise". Competition and Markets Authority. 30 September 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  42. "Leicester City and JD Sports merchandise probe". BBC. 30 September 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  43. Saker-Clarke, Henry (30 September 2021). "Watchdog launches probe into Leicester City and JD Sports over merchandise". Independent. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  44. Hardy, Matt (30 September 2021). "Leicester City and JD Sports probed by watchdog over merchandise". City AM. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  45. "JD Sports close to losing ownership of Footasylum". Retail Gazette. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  46. "Britain fines JD Sports, Footasylum as CEO meetings breach order". Reuters. 14 February 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  47. "JD Sports and Footasylum fined £4.7m for secret meetings". Sky News. 14 February 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  48. "JD Sports and Footasylum fined £5m for breaching CMA order after covert car park meeting". Retail Gazette. 14 February 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
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