LONDON (dpa-AFX) - JD Sports Fashion (JD.L) has put its Go Outdoors into administration, with thousands of jobs across 67 stores set to be affected by the decision.
Michael Magnay and Daniel Butters of Deloitte LLP have been appointed as Joint Administrators.
JD Sports blamed that high rents on its store forced the company to take the decision.
JD Sports said that the terms of the property leases in Go Outdoors were extremely inflexible with the stores having an average remaining period to lease expiry of approximately 10 years with upwards only rent reviews, many of which are fixed at rates above inflation regardless of the market rent in the location.
The company noted that the future viability of the business has become materially uncertain with the enforced closure of Go's stores on 23 March 2020 bringing into sharper focus the operating costs of the business, following the onset of COVID-19.
In November 2016, JD Sports acquired GO Outdoors for 112 million pounds.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX