US retailer Dick’s linked with JJB rescue
US sports and fitness retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods is understood to be the so-far un-named party looking at investing in struggling North West retailer JJB Sports.
Wigan-based JJB said yesterday it was in talks over a funding injection with a “potential strategic partner”, which sparked a spike in the company’s share price.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, founded in 1948 in New York State, and now based in Pittsburgh has more than 450 stores and in 2011 had sales of more tha $5.2bn. It sells a wide range of sports, golf, fitness, outdoor and footwear products.
It carries the name of its founder, Dick Stack, who opened his first store selling fishing gear with a $300 gift from his grandmother.
JJB, which has been squeezed by competition from upmarket peer JD Sports Fashion – and at the lower end Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct, has narrowly avoided administration twice in recent years.
It has gone through two CVA restructuring deals to shed poorly-performing stores, which shareholders, including Microsoft boss Bill Gates’ investment arm, have pumped in close to £200m in various rights issues over the last three years.
A spokesman for the retailer declined to comment on the link to Dick’s, or the timescale of a possible deal.
Shares were up 3% today at 16.48p.
