The founder of JJB Sports, Dave Whelan, has come to the rescue of the troubled retailer by agreeing to purchase the company’s fitness club business which will be re-branded as DW Sports Fitness. com.
Whelan’s purchase of the fitness clubs is part of a bigger venture into the retail industry, selling brand name sporting goods, equipment, footwear and clothing- everything that JJB Sports was in fact.
JJB Sports was originally set up by the former footballer Whelan in the 1970’s and the Wigan based group was eventually sold in 2007. Whelan who is currently chairman of Wigan Athletic Football Club will also re-brand the clubs football stadium as the DW Stadium.
The sale of the fitness clubs is imperative to the survival of the JJB group who have seen loans of around £60m being called in by the groups bankers. A deadline that had been set by the banks expired yesterday. The company has already seen it’s footwear chains Original Shoe Company and Qube put into administration with the loss of 400 jobs.
JJB is expecting to report massive losses for the year to January 2009, warning that the figure could be as high as £10m, while the share value of the group has dropped 87% during the last year.
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