JD Sports Fashion is to acquire the casual clothing brand OneTrueSaxon for £50,000 and has inked a deal to dispose of its rugby brand Canterbury to Pentland for £22.7m, three years after acquiring it.

JD Sports said it disposed of Canterbury, which made a pretax loss of £1.1m last year, because it “does not believe that the Canterbury brand will be a key component of the Group’s future retail proposition”.

In addition, it said, a “substantial element” of Canterbury’s revenue and earnings are located in New Zealand and Australia, territories where the Group has “limited operations and which are significantly distant from the core retail focus of the group in the UK and continental Europe”.

The retailer added that the proposed acquisition of the OneTrueSaxon brand is “in line with the group’s strategy of acquiring brand and intellectual property assets where the board believes that they will help to support its core retail proposition”.

The acquisition will enhance “the unique proposition offered to customers”, said JD.

JD executive chairman Peter Cowgill said: “Having reviewed the options for Canterbury, we are pleased to have agreed its sale to Pentland on terms that are attractive for JD and provide Pentland with the opportunity to further build and develop the Canterbury brand.

“Acquiring the OneTrueSaxon brand will allow us to leverage our in-house expertise and offer new products through our core retail fascias.”

OneTrueSaxon was founded in 2000 and is an England-based casual clothing and footwear brand. In the year to December 31, 2010, OneTrueSaxon made a pre-tax loss of £1.5m.

The transactions are subject to, and conditional upon, the approval of the company’s shareholders at a meeting on September 13.

Pentland is a majority shareholder of JD.

Addleshaw Goddard advised JD on the transactions.

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