Ailing retailer JJB Sports was handed a lifeline today by its former chairman and founder Dave Whelan who has bought its healthclub chain for £76m.
The deal is enough to reduce JJB's £60m debts and restore stability at the group which employs 12,000 people. However its problems are not over and this evening its advisers were hammering out the final details of a restructuring plan that will involve the closure of some 30 stores.
JJB's lawyers were also finalising a statement on the circumstances surrounding the departure of suspended chief executive Chris Ronnie, who is thought to be the subject of an FSA investigation. In January Ronnie was ordered out of the company by chairman Sir David Jones after it emerged his 29% stake had been seized by the administrators to the collapsed Icelandic bank, Kaupthing. Ronnie bought the stake from Whelan for £190m less than two years ago.
However Whelan pre-empted the company's announcement by hosting a press conference at the JJB Stadium in Wigan. He is renaming the gyms DW Sports Fitness and the adjoining shops DW Sports. He is even rebranding the ground, home to Wigan Athletic and Wigan Warriors, as the DW Stadium. "The JJB Stadium has made the town of Wigan known all over the world," he said. "Now we can look forward to a whole new era as the DW Stadium."
