JJB Sports - History

History

The sportshop chain was founded in 1971, when ex-footballer Dave Whelan acquired a single sports shop in Wigan. The original store was established by JJ Broughton in the early 1900s and later was purchased by JJ Bradburn. As these initials were all the same the business was known locally as JJB's. When Whelan bought the store from Bradburn, he kept the JJB name.

During the early 1990s, the store portfolio grew to 120 stores by 1994, at which point the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange. In 1998, JJB bought its largest domestic competitor Sports Division. The acquisition made JJB one of the largest sports retailers in the UK, focusing on sports clothing rather than sports equipment.

Duncan Sharpe, chief executive of JJB sports, committed suicide in 2002. Mr Sharpe had been with JJB Sports for 19 years and was the son-in-law of the chairman, Dave Whelan. By 2005, JJB had expanded to over 430 stores throughout the UK and Ireland. It had also opened a new branch in Amsterdam in 2002.

On 8 June 2007, Whelan sold his residual 29% stake in the firm for £190 million to Icelandic financial group Exista and Chris Ronnie, a sports retailer who previously worked at Umbro and Sports Direct.

On 19 October 2007, JJB bought a 10.1% stake in Umbro in a move to protect its stake in the market for England football shirts. This stake was sold in its entirety to Nike in March 2008.

In December 2007, JJB announced that they had purchased the Original Shoe Company for £5 Million. JJB considered converting some of the smaller JJB High Street stores stores into OSC stores, keeping OSC as a separate division of the JJB group which would share JJB's buying, financing and marketing functions.

In September 2008 JJB released a less than impressive set of interim results, which included a warning from the auditors raising doubts over JJB's future as a going concern. This is due to a short term loan repayment of £20 million due before the end of 2008. It was noted that if this could not be repaid from normal trading cashflow then JJB will be advised to sell some (unspecified) non-core assets to cover the shortfall. JJB's net worth was only £28 million in the beginning of October 2008.

In October 2008 the value of JJB shares fell to less than 10% of the value at the time of Dave Whelan's share sale to Chris Ronnie and Exista. This was partly in response to the interim financial report and also as a result of Coface removing credit insurance from debts owed by JJB to their suppliers. Three weeks later 34% (majority share) was purchased by Sports Direct International PLC. The fee is still to be reported.

On 10 February 2009, JJB put their Qube and Original Shoe Company subsidiaries into administration after failing to find a buyer. By the end of the week the Group secured a reprieve from its bankers to avoid putting the whole group into administration.

On 13 October 2009, JJB admitted that former executives were being investigated by both HM Revenue & Customs and the Serious Organised Crime Agency.