Mike Ashley is to step down from the board of Frasers Group, which owns high street brands including Sports Direct and House of Fraser, 40 years after he opened his first sports shop in Maidenhead.
The company announced that the billionaire retail tycoon and founder of Sports Direct would not be standing for re-election as a director at this year’s annual meeting on 19 October.
He will remain as the company’s controlling shareholder with a near-70% stake, and continue to act as an adviser to the board and senior management.
Ashley, 58, stepped back from running Frasers in May, when he installed his son-in-law, Michael Murray, as chief executive. One former worker described Murray as “a more acceptable version of Mike Ashley”.
Ashley said: “Since Michael Murray took over the leadership of Frasers Group earlier this year, the business has gone from strength to strength. It is clear that the group has the right leadership and strategy in place and I feel very confident passing the baton to Michael and his team.
“Although I am stepping down from the board, I remain 100% committed to supporting Frasers and Michael’s plans and ambitions, and I look forward to helping the team as and when they require me. My commitment and support as a Frasers shareholder is as strong as ever.”
Frasers said Ashley would provide the group with £100m of additional funding for any future expansion, as part of his continuing support for the business.
Murray said: “Mike has built an incredible business over the past 40 years and, on behalf of the board and the group, I want to thank him for all he has done. With our new strategy and leadership team, we are driving this business forward at pace and we are all excited for the future.”
Frasers recently rejoined the FTSE 100 index of the UK’s leading shares after a six-year absence. The group, which then traded as Sports Direct, fell out of the blue-chip index in 2016 after its share price slumped on the back of a Guardian investigation that revealed poor pay and working conditions at the company as well as poor trading in its stores.
Moving away from his discount clothing roots, Ashley expanded his retail empire with the purchase of the House of Fraser department store chain in 2018 and has been investing heavily in the luxury Flannels chain.
While other retailers have struggled, the Frasers share price has risen more than 17% in the past year. It set out plans for more acquisitions and store openings in July after sales rose by almost a third and profits bounced back following the end of Covid restrictions. Analysts say the company is benefiting from a reduction of competition in sports retail coupled with the closure of House of Fraser’s worst-performing stores.
Ashley began his retailing career after injury crushed any hopes of becoming a professional squash player in 1982, when he founded his first sports and ski shop in Maidenhead in Berkshire with the help of a £10,000 family loan.
It grew into a chain of more than 100 stores across the UK by the late 1990s and was initially called Sports Soccer, later rebranded as Sports Direct International. Driven by Ashley’s aggressive discounting and acquisition of brands, such as Lonsdale and Dunlop Slazenger, Sports Direct has expanded to 715 stores. It claims to be Europe’s biggest sports retailer, jostling for space with UK rival JD Sports and France’s Decathlon.
Ashley also owned Newcastle United football club for 14 years, but sold it to a Saudi-led consortium for £300m a year ago.
