JD Sports plans takeover of rival retailer Go Outdoors as Sports Direct flounders
High street retailer JD Sports Fashion is exploring a takeover of Go Outdoors in a bid to expand its dominance in fitness clothing.
According to Sky News, JD Sports is one of several bidders looking to make an offer for Go Outdoors, which is being sold in an auction run by KPMG.
JD Sports – which now has a market value over £2.5bn – has been bolstering its position on the high street this year, announcing in August that it intends to open another store on Oxford Street.
The company posted record sales and profits earlier this year as it asserted itself over troubled rival Sports Direct; profits at JD Sports jumped 45 per cent and like-for-like sales in its sports fashion division were up 10 per cent.
Read more: Shareholders told to oppose Sports Direct's board at the AGM
Meanwhile, Sports Direct has been drowning in controversy over poor working conditions in one of its warehouses.
Sports Direct has been forced to pay back workers £1m after it emerged they were not receiving the national minimum wage.
The retailer now faces the prospect that shareholders will not approve founder Mike Ashley's re-election to the board at the annual general meeting on 7 September after a shareholder advisory group said he had been "highly criticised" by the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee.