General News

Blacks Leisure has Blacks and Millets stores across the UK Image c/o www.blacksleisure.co.uk

The outdoor equipment firm, whose subsidiaries are household names, is closing stores whose performance it says have 'been a considerable drag on the core outdoor business'.

The move comes after Blacks Leisure Group PLC announced on 22 September that the group had 'underperformed against budget' for the first half of the financial year and that 'unexpected difficult trading' in the group's Boardwear division and at loss-making stores had meant it had breached the terms of its bank loans.

The company further announced it had been pursuing plans to ‘exit’ its Boardwear division for the last 18 months, resulting in relinquishing the O’Neill part of the business. Administrators were then called in to its 11 Sandcity boardwear stores on 23 September. Blacks Leisure had now given up one third of its overall Boardwear division.

Further to the boardwear cutbacks, approximately 50 jobs at the firm's head office in Northhampton - 20% of its head office workforce - are being shaved and it has not yet been announced how many staff will lose jobs as a result of its 89 store closures.

The company hopes that the actions taken will 'ultimately strengthen the business' helping to ensure the long-term success of the outdoor retailer.