JD Sports’ Go Outdoors deal gets green light from competition watchdog

Retailer JD Sports Fashion has had its £112m acquisition of outdoor clothing company Go Outdoors approved by the Competition and Markets Authority.

Bury-based JD Sports signed the deal for the company, including its £16m net debt, back in November.

JD Sports already has a significant interest in the outdoors market through its Blacks, Millets, Ultimate Outdoors and Tiso businesses and the acquisition makes JD sports the London Stock Exchange’s biggest sports goods retailer.

Together they had combined revenues of £155m for the year to 30 January 2016 with 182 stores trading at the year end.

Peter Cowgill, executive chairman, said: “I am pleased with the outcome of the CMA’s investigation and delighted to welcome Go Outdoors to the JD Group.

“Go Outdoors will make an excellent addition to the existing JD Outdoor business and I am confident that it will build upon Blacks’, Millets’ and Tiso’s recent success on the high street and strengthen our consumer proposition within the Outdoor sector.”

Go Outdoors was founded in 1998 in Sheffield by Paul Caplan and John Graham. It grew from a single store to a nationwide outdoors group with 58 stores and turnover of £202.2m, with pre-tax profits of £4.9m.

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