Yesterday evening, Monday 22nd June 2015, the management of Sports Direct Belgium issued the following communication to our works council representatives at our shop in Gent.
As you are aware, we entered into a contract with the landlord of a new store in Lochristi as notified to you on 10th February 2015. The new store was intended to be relocation for the existing store in Gent. We had intended to spend in the region of €650k on the fit out of the new 1600 square metre shop. As with other previous agreements, the contract was conditional on the landlord obtaining a socio-economic permit for the new store from the authority. It is a normal condition within our contracts for new leases and we expected the landlord to obtain the necessary permit from the authority. Unfortunately we have received formal notification that the authority has refused to grant the necessary permit because of concerns regarding car parking and potential traffic congestion.
Please find a statement from management of SportsDirect.com, following a communication to their works council representatives at the Sports Direct store in Gent, yesterday evening Monday 22nd June.
We met with the Mayor alongside the landlord and lawyers to attempt to resolve and agree a compromise to enable the authority to grant the permit. Unfortunately the Major refused to reconsider and as it stands now we have been refused permission to take a lease on the new unit.
As you are aware, the lease contract on the existing store in Gent was due to expire at the end of March. However, we intended to ensure that the staff had a new store to relocate into, therefore, we agreed with the landlord of Gent to extend the lease to coincide with the opening of Lochristi. The extension of the lease term cost in excess of €113k because we had to agree with the landlord to give up half of our compensation due from the landlord on exit. We advise you of this as demonstration of our commitment to this store and our staff. The existing Gent store lease ends on 31 July 2015.
Regrettably, as a result of the authority's refusal to grant the landlord the necessary permits, we now have no other option than to inform you that 18 Gent store position will suppressed.
However, a staffing review in surrounding stores provides that alternative opportunities will be offered to 6 concerned employees by their Area Manager in the days following this communication.
Likewise staff will be welcome to apply for vacancies in stores not within the immediate area that perhaps we had not considered for geographical reasons.
We will continue to search for alternative premises for a replacement store and redeployment opportunities within existing stores. We are also exploring the viability of remaining in our existing gent store pending the landlords redevelopment to enable us more time, however we have not yet reached any agreement with the landlord.
Our regional and the Area Manager will be visiting the store on Tuesday 23 June to communicate to staff and as discussed this then allows time for you to compile questions before the works council meets on Thursday.
Staff with notice periods longer than a month will be relocated in alternative stores where possible or granted their notice periods in lieu as necessary. HR Department will discuss this detail in line with local legislative requirements in the coming days.
We appreciate the disappointment that this matter causes and we are committed to ensuring a smooth process for the staff impacted by this situation. We welcome your inputs and support as always.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150623006345/en/
Contacts:
SportsDirect
Will Moore
will@kbapr.com
or
Melanie Faldo
melanie@kbapr.com
or
00 44 207 734 9995.
