Sports kit owner bought by rival

STAR sportswear, the Yorkshire company behind sports kit manufacturer Prostar, has been sold out of administration to the owners of the Mitre brand.

Wakefield-based Star Sportswear suffered cash flow pressure following a lack of sales and was placed in administration yesterday.

The business, which trades as Prostar and supplies kits to many amateur football, rugby and cricket clubs, as well as to professional clubs including Shrewsbury Town, Wakefield Wildcats, and Surrey Cricket Club, was subsequently sold to a subsidiary of Pentland Group, the owners of the Mitre brand.

Joint administrators Howard Smith and Mark Firmin, of KPMG’s restructuring practice, were appointed as administrators.

Mr Smith, KPMG restructuring associate partner, said: “We are very pleased to have sold the business following a full sales process which we assisted with prior to our appointment.

“All of Star Sportswear’s 53 employees, the vast majority of which work at the company’s Wakefield premises, will transfer to the new owner and customers will be largely unaffected by the change in ownership.”

Following a management buyout (MBO) of parent company Star Sportswear in 2008, its management team re-focused the business to move it in a new direction and grow it further.

The company moved out of family ownership for the first time in more than 90 years following a management buyout in 2007.

Star Sportswear was established in 1901 and supplied the socks for the first triumphant Mount Everest team in 1952.