JJB Sports

JJB Sports plc (stylized as JJb sports) was a British sports retailer.

On 24 September 2012, shares in JJB Sports were suspended and the firm called in administrators. On 1 October 2012, it was announced that Sports Direct had purchased part of the business including 20 stores, the brand and its website for £28.3 million.

Corporate history

The original JJB sportshop was founded in the early 1900s. It was expanded and incorporated in 1971, when ex-footballer and supermarket chain operator Dave Whelan acquired a single sports shop in Wigan and immediately opened a second sports goods outlet in his Sutton, St Helens, supermarket. The original JJB sports store was established by John Jarvis Broughton in the early 1900s and later was purchased by John Joseph Bradburn. As these initials were all the same the business was known locally as JJB's. When Whelan bought the store from Bradburn, he kept the JJB name

During the early 1990s, the store portfolio grew to 120 stores by 1994, at which point the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange. In 1998, JJB bought its largest domestic competitor Sports Division. The acquisition made JJB one of the largest sports retailers in the United Kingdom, focusing on sports clothing rather than sports equipment. It hand got to a sales total of £372.97 million (US$636.60 million) in 1999.