JD Sports Fashion plc, more commonly known as JD Sports or JD, is a British sports-

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion i ...

retail company based in Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Pentland Group Pentland Group is a British privately owned global company that owns and invests in, primarily, retail and wholesale businesses in the sports, outdoor and sports fashion sectors. The Group is the majority shareholder of JD Sports, which operate ...

owns 55% of the company.

History

JD Sports, Westfield Carousel, December 2018

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. The company opened a store in the

Arndale Centre Arndale Centres were the first "American style" malls to be built in the United Kingdom. In total, twenty three Arndales have been built in the United Kingdom, and three in Australia. The first opened in Jarrow, County Durham, in 1961, as a ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in 1983.

bought Wardle's and Makin's shares for £44.6M in May 2005, so acquiring 45% of the business.

Acquisitions

Early acquisitions of stores included 209 stores with the acquisition of First Sport from

Blacks Leisure Group Blacks Outdoor Retail Ltd. is a British retailer, headquartered in Bury, Greater Manchester, England which owns the British outdoor retailers Blacks, Millets and Ultimate Outdoors. Blacks is the largest outdoor retailer in the UK with stores ...

in December 2001 and 70 stores from the administrators of Allsports in October 2005. Subsequent acquisitions of businesses included: *Bank Stores, which sold fashion clothing, for around £19M in December 2007 *Champion Sports for €19.6M in January 2011 *

out of administration for £20 million in January 2012 *the streetwear clothing brand, FLY53, in February 2012 *the brand Tessuti in 2016 *Cloggs, a shoe retailer, out of administration, in February 2013 * part ownership of the Leeds-based trainer retailer, The Hip Store, in May 2014 *Clothingsites.co.uk with its websites, Woodhouse Clothing and Brown Bag Clothing in September 2016 *Go Outdoors for £112 million in November 2016 *the US-based retailer, Finish Line for $558 million in March 2018 *the retailer, Footasylum, for £90 million in March 2019 *Shoe Palace for $325 million in December 2020 In addition, the company acquired the rugby heritage brands 'Canterbury' and '

Canterbury of New Zealand Canterbury of New Zealand (commonly referred to simply as Canterbury) is a New Zealand sports equipment manufacturing company focused on rugby. The company originated from the Canterbury region in New Zealand. Canterbury of New Zealand was esta ...

' as well as 'The Duffer of St. George' and 'Kooga Rugby' brands.

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. The company acquired an 80% stake in the Australian retailer Next Athleisure for A$6.6 million in late 2016. This was followed by the opening of more stores in Australia in April 2017, in South Korea in April 2018, in Singapore in May 2018 and in Thailand in November 2018. The company also acquired 80% of Cosmos Sport, based in

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

, in December 2021 and has launched a joint venture in Indonesia with a store due to open in 2022.

Sponsorship

JD Sports is the official supplier and sponsor of numerous

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

teams, players and associations. In August 2008, JD Sports announced sponsorship deals with AFC Bournemouth,

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

, Blackpool,

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

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.

Go Outdoors

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

Alleged breaches of competition law

The company along with

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

were placed under investigation by the

Competition and Markets Authority The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the competition regulator in United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-com ...

(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

said they were 'fully cooperating' with the CMA.

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. 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.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1981 establishments in England Sportswear brands Clothing retailers of England Clothing companies of England Retail companies established in 1981 Companies based in Bury, Greater Manchester British companies established in 1981 Sporting goods retailers of the United Kingdom Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange English brands 1996 initial public offerings