Sport & Leisure
Sport & Leisure covers the business performance, product innovation, and consumer trends driving the UK’s sports, fitness, and leisure retail sectors. This section reports on brand strategy, partnerships, sustainability, and digital engagement across apparel, equipment, and lifestyle categories. Retail Sector’s Sport & Leisure coverage provides insight for retailers, suppliers, and brand managers into how evolving health trends, technology, and consumer behaviour are shaping growth and competition in this dynamic market.
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Feb- 2020 -3 February
Angling Direct appoints new board director
Angling Direct has announced that Dilys Maltby will join the board of the company as a non-executive director with immediate effect. The fishing tackle retailer said that Maltby has a “strong track record” in advising international consumer brands on their “purpose, brand strategy and proposition”. She will now be working…
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Nov- 2019 -26 November
Sports Direct International set to rebrand as Frasers Group
Sports Direct International is set to change its name to Frasers Group, the parent company of Sports Direct has revealed. The name change forms part of a new “multi-channel elevation strategy” that aims to provide “unrivalled multi-brand offering to customers across sport, lifestyle and fashion”. News of the rebrand comes…
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Oct- 2019 -21 October
The Entertainer reports 29% increase in profits to £14.7m
Toy retailer The Entertainer has defied the high-street gloom and reported a 29% increase in pre-tax profits to £14.7m. According to The Sunday Times, the profit increase was attributed to an increase in sales to £204.4m, up from £37.3m the previous. The Entertainer was founded by husband-and-wife team Gary and…
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Jul- 2019 -26 July
Sports Direct delay results for second time
Sports Direct has again delayed the release of its latest financial results and has asked investors for more time, insisting they may still be released by the end of the day (Friday 26 July). The results were expected to have been announced at 7am ahead of the market opening, less…
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3 July
Sports Direct retail chief leaves after 28 years
Sports Direct’s head of retail operations, Karen Byers, is stepping down from her position with immediate effect after 28 years, the Press Association has reported. Byers joined Sports Direct soon after it was founded by Mike Ashley, and has been described by him as the person who “runs Sports Direct”.…
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Mar- 2019 -12 March
Early Learning Centre sold to The Entertainer for £13.5m
Mothercare has sold its Early Learning Centre (ELC) brand to toy retailer The Entertainer for £13.5m. The deal comes as part of restructuring and refinancing at Mothercare, with the retailer saying it means ambitions to be debt free by the end of the year had been bolstered. Mothercare said the…
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1 March
Lego looks to break China despite cutting 8% of workforce
Lego has announced it is looking to expand into China despite the fact it is set to cut 8% of its global workforce. The company’s Chinese ambitions come following strong financial results for the 2018 financial year, which saw revenue rise by 4% up to £4.1bn during last year with…
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Jan- 2019 -16 January
Build-A-Bear lowers UK trading expectations due to ‘significant’ Brexit challenges
Build-A-Bear has announced it has lowered its trading expectations for the UK due to “significant” challenges posed by uncertainty around Brexit. The retailer identified the EU’s GDPR laws as some of the factors causing uncertainty in its UK business. A statement by Build-A-Bear said its “sales decline will be largely…
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15 January
The Entertainer stockpiling toys for no-deal Brexit
Toy retailer, The Entertainer has announced it is stockpiling an extra 100 containers of toys in order to prepare for a no-deal Brexit. The Entertainer’s managing director Gary Grant said the stockpiling meant that the toy retailer had sent double the usual amount of stock to the UK, to ensure…
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14 January
JD Sports ‘confident’ after strong Christmas sales growth
Sports fashion retailer JD Sports has reported a total sales growth of 15% for the 48-week period to 5 January 2019. Total like-for-like sales growth during the period also increased by 5%, which included a consistently positive like-for-like performance across Black Friday and the Christmas period. According to the group,…
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