Sports Direct buys 50 stores in US

Sports Direct’s purchase of 50 stores trading as Bob’s Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports, from Eastern Outfitters including the buying of two loss-making chains,  for £78m ($101m)marks his entrance into the US market.

Mike Ashley is under pressure into Sports Direct’s working conditions and investor criticism of its corporate governance standards. However, the company has addressed corporate governance concerns, by electing an employee to attend its board meetings. The acquisition is expected to complete in the first half of May 2017 and will provide Sports Direct with a footprint in US bricks and mortar retail and a platform from which to grow US online sales.

In 1982 Mike Ashley opened his first sport and ski shop in Maidenhead followed by other in and around London, with a loan of £10, 000, from his family.