Sports Direct executive Michael Murray: We’re not a business in crisis

Murray, who is Sports Direct’s head of elevation and the son-in-law of chief executive Mike Ashley, was speaking just 24 hours after the retailer struck a £12.8m deal to rescue Jack Wills out of administration.

It was the latest in a string of distress purchases, including the likes of Evans Cycles, Sofa.com and House of Fraser.

Ashley admitted problems in the department store chain were “terminal” during its half-year results presentation last month, which was delayed after a shock £605m tax bill from the Belgian authorities.

But despite the problems encountered at House of Fraser, Murray said Sports Direct will continue to look at acquisitions when opportunities arise.

He told Sky News: “I can understand why people would think it, but it’s definitely not a business in crisis.”

On House of Fraser, he added: “Some [you] win, some [you] lose, but ultimately we’re having a go and we believe in ourselves.

“We’re determined, we work very hard, we’re not thinking about the short term, we’re thinking about the medium-to-long term, the Next generation of Sports Direct consumers and shareholders. Short term we may be wrong, but long term we back our decisions.”

Murray said Sports Direct will “try and keep as many [Jack Wills] stores as possible” open after winning the race with Philip Day to snap up the preppy fashion chain.

But he admitted Jack Wills had opened too many shops and failed to develop its brand over the past few years under the ownership of private equity firm BlueGem.

“For the foreseeable future, we will try and keep as many stores as possible, but the business has historically chased retail direct-to-consumer sales and has over-extended itself into multiple locations paying extortionate rents,” Murray said.

“The rents in these historic locations will need to come down but we have great relationships with the landlords and we will be looking to work with them to save as many stores as we can.

“Some will have to close if we can’t get the right rental deals, but we believe we will be making fair offers to landlords and work collaboratively with them.

“It is impossible to say if we keep 80% or 90% of the stores. I’d like to keep all of the stores but it is not realistic to think that all the landlords will [reach deals]. I can’t guarantee a number of jobs, but I can say I believe the majority of stores will be kept.”