The retailer’s profit margins have also been hit by the pound’s sharp decline since the Brexit vote. Sports Direct’s share price has more than halved in the past year, with shares now changing hands for 272.4p.
Since then, the company has been forced to give £1m in back pay to workers and offer staff guaranteed working hours. A scathing parliamentary committee report later compared conditions at its Shirebrook warehouse to a Victorian workhouse. At the time, the company’s chairman, Keith Hellawell, blamed an “extreme political, union and media campaign waged against this company” for damaging its reputation.Īn undercover Guardian investigation last year exposed the fact that Sports Direct workers were being paid less than the minimum wage. In December, the retailer revealed that profits had more than halved to £71.6m in the six months to 23 October. Sports Direct has had a difficult 2016, in which criticism of its working practices was compounded by weak trading. It already owns the rights to the Dunlop brand for other markets. Sumitomo Rubber Industries, originally called the Dunlop Rubber Company, has a tyre business as well as a sports division that makes tennis and golf equipment.
The Dunlop business made a pre-tax profit of £4m on sales of £41.8m, the retailer said. In a statement, Sports Direct said it did “not currently have the bandwidth to develop and manage international brands simultaneously”, and needed to prioritise its core UK businesses and relationships with third-party brands.
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