JJB Stadium Logo

JJB Sports plc was a British sports retailer. On 24 September 2012, shares in JJB Sports were suspended, and the firm called in administrators. On 1 October 2012, it was announced that Sports Direct had purchased part of the business, including 20 stores, the brand, and its website for £28.3 million.

Corporate history

The original JJB sportshop was founded in the beginning of the 1900s. It was expanded and incorporated in 1971, when ex footballer and supermarket chain operator Dave Whelan acquired a single sports shop in Wigan, and immediately opened a second sports goods outlet in his supermarket in Sutton, St Helens.

The original JJB sports store was established by John Jarvis Broughton in the beginning of the 1900s, and later was purchased by John Joseph 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 beginning of the 1990s, the store portfolio grew to stores totalling 120 by 1994, at which point the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange. In July 1998, JJB bought its largest domestic competitor Sports Division. The acquisition made JJB one of the largest sports retailers in the United Kingdom, focusing on sports clothing rather than sports equipment. JJB had got to a sales total of £372.97 million (US$636.60 million) in 1999.

In July 2002, it had also opened a new branch in Amsterdam. In October 2002, Duncan Sharpe, chief executive of JJB Sports, committed suicide. Mr Sharpe had been with the company for nineteen years, and was the son in law of the chairman, Dave Whelan.

By 2005, JJB had expanded to stores over 430 throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. On 8 June 2007, Mr 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 stake of 10.1% in Umbro, in an move to protect its stake in the market for shirts of England Football. 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 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. 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.

This was from debts owed by JJB to their suppliers. Three weeks later, a 34% share was purchased by Sports Direct.

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.JJB wins stay of execution as Stylo folds
''The Independent'', 14 February 2009 On 13 October 2009, JJB admitted that former executives were being investigated by both HM Revenue & Customs and the Serious Organised Crime Agency.Organised crime bureau probes ex-JJB directors
''The Times'', 14 October 2009

2011: Major Restructuring Plan

JJB was one of many companies that had undergone major restructuring and change due to the recession and faced a £31.5 million debt, the closure of 95 stores and a possible hostile takeover by one of its top rivals, JD Sports, as of February 2011. The firm attempted to raise £65 million in finances from its investors on 7 April 2011.

In February 2011, JJB revealed that as many as 95 of its stores faced closure within the next two years, and had asked for emergency £31.5m funding on 11 December 2011.

Administration

The combined fiscal value of JJB Sports' shares had totaled £500 million in 2010, but had unpredictably collapsed to only £1.2 million by September 2012.

On 24 September 2012, it was reported by the BBC
...