Crystal Amber Fund director Richard Bernstein is the first shareholder to take upthe right to hold a board position which JJB offered during its restructuring earlier this year. This site uses cookies to deliver its services, to personalise ads and to analyse traffic. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to our use of cookies. Jjb sports news and archive. Fashion Former JJB Sports CEO to stand fraud trial The former chief executive officer of JJB Sports, Chris Ronnie, is set to stand trial today, after being accused of a one million pound fraud, which thought to have occurred prior to retailer's collapse into administration in Fashion UK casualties of fashion It has been a tough year for British high street fashion.
Got it. Unlike such competitors as Intersport and JD Sports, JJB Sports focuses on sporting goods, rather than the fading leisure- and sportswear trends of the late s. Nonetheless, clothing represented 43 percent 49 percent at Sports Division of the company's sales in , with footwear adding 30 percent 33 percent at Sports Division.
The company also generated 14 percent of sales with so-called replica football soccer and rugby kits, featuring the colors of U. The company continues to be led by founder David Whelan, as well as his son-in-law and heir apparent Duncan Sharpe.
David Whelan came from a mining background. All of the male members of the Whelan family had worked the Wigan, Lancashire, mines. However, Whelan's father was determined to spare his sons from the same life of hardship; he forbade them from following the family mining tradition, insisting instead that Whelan become an engineer's apprentice. At the age of 15, however, Whelan left school in order to pursue a career in professional football soccer. By the age of 23, however, Whelan's football career was over.
Having helped his team reach the FA Cup final round, at Wembley Stadium, Whelan, playing fullback, broke his leg in three places.
Whelan made a go at returning to the field, after two years of recovery, only to break his leg a second time. Whelan used the bonus money to buy out a stall in Blackburn's outdoor market, where he began selling toiletry items and groceries.
Whelan's talents as a salesman and entrepreneur quickly came to light. Soon after, Whelan opened a second stall, at Wigan's market.
By the end of the s, Whelan had moved to an actual shop, on the edge of Wigan, before opening a second shop in the center of town. Whelan incorporated his stores under the name Whelan's Discount Stores, expanding to a full supermarket concept and building up a chain of ten stores by the end of the s. In , Whelan agreed to sell his chain to the northern-based Wm. Rather than retire, at age 60, Whelan turned to a new retailing direction.
In , Whelan had purchased and incorporated a small bait-and-tackle and sports shop on the outskirts of Wigan. The store had been in existence since , when it was opened by rugby player J. After Broughton, the store came under the ownership of another former athlete, J. Bradburn, with fishing equipment and model railroads providing the bulk of sales.
Whelan took the shared initials of the store's former owners, naming the store JJB Sports. When the store's refrigerator broke down, Whelan decided to redirect his shop's focus to a less perishable product. As such he began stocking his shelves with sports equipment and related items, eliminating model railroads, and reducing emphasis on fishing supplies. By , JJB Sports had become solely dedicated to sports equipment and to strong growth. By the end of , Whelan's retail experience had enabled him to build a chain of seven stores.
In a buoyant financial market, the buyout of JJB and the company's subsequent acquisition deals could have been successful. But with the UK and rest of the world plunging into the global financial crisis in the second half of , JJB quickly found itself in financial difficulties.
With its sales now trailing way behind rivals Sports Direct and JD Sports in a toughened retail environment, JJB found that it was having difficulty servicing its expensive debt as profits plunged.
Sell-offs soon followed, as JJB trimmed back its store portfolio to more than half its peak, and sold its fitness clubs back to Mr Whelan. Meanwhile, Original Shoe Company and another underperforming subsidiary, footwear brand Qube, were put into administration. Mr Ronnie left the company in , but subsequent bosses have failed to stop the rot. Yet just three months later Dick's announced that it had written off the investment, saying JJB's sales had "materially deteriorated from its expectations".
Meanwhile, former JJB boss Chris Ronnie was earlier this year charged with three counts of fraud, two money-laundering offences and two counts of furnishing false information relating to his time at the company. He denies the charges and the case has yet to go to court. Matt Piner, lead consultant at retail research group Conlumino, said everything started to go wrong at JJB as soon as Dave Whelan departed.
And it went spectacularly wrong," he said. Despite JJB struggling with debts going back to the buyout, Mr Piner said its core problem was a lack of retail focus. While JD Sports is at the fashion end of the sportswear market.
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