Mike Ashley strikes £90m deal to buy ..

That’s where your transfer budget went Rafa ..

One more place to boycott ..

I do hope that as many as possible of the HofF jobs can be saved regardless of who has bought the struggling chain. At 0800hrs it looked as all the jobs would be lost.

At least there’ll be some nice big HoF mugs now.

Expect half of the floor space to be taken with Sports Direct cheap chat..

Hardly hodgynd, he owns Flannels as well and theres no sports direct stuff in there

That man certainly has built an empire.

Are all the jobs saved ?

£90m, could’ve got a loan for that😜👍

I doubt Ashley will bring any Sports Direct product into HoF. He will keep them totally separate as he has with Flannels.

His actions will (probably) save a lot of jobs.

As for using Rafa’s transfer budget to buy HoF…..was a budget ever confirmed by NUFC? transfer window closed yesterday but administration only confirmed this morning.

Ashley is an opportunist businessman who gets some things right and others wrong.

That man certainly has built an empire.

Are all the jobs saved ?

£90m, could’ve got a loan for that

Better to give saving jobs a shot rather than spending £90 million on a mediocre footballer or two?

My comments were said very much tongue in cheek as a partisan Newcastle United supporter who absolutely detests the man ..

For the record he also has shares in Debenhams …

Looks like a pre-pack jobbie where he buys it post liquidation so he doesn’t inherit any pension deficits and can cast that off….

Is it a pre-pack jobbie where he buys it post liquidation so he doesn’t inherit any pension deficits?

Almost certainly.

That, and the administrators probably willing to accept a lower valuation than pre-liquidation.

Oh miraculously a deal.

In no particular order:

Only profitable stores retained

Only the best retail space retained

No redundancy (until a years time)

Creditors loose out

Senior Managers retained or receive large payouts

Pension scheme frozen as not enough funds

Administrator gets nice big fat cheque for helping out the company, but the deal was already done in advance, just not willing to be done unless in administration

Seems that’s the best outcome for a business that’s failing.  No one in their right mind would invest money in something that’s going to make a loss.  Better to try to save the bits that have a chance

If you work in retail you really need to find a different job, one that’s not under threat from the internet.

Possibly what’s left will be enough to generate some income and pay some wages.

No one in their right mind would invest money in something that’s going to make a loss.  Better to try to save the bits that have a chance

Having brushed with working in insolvency finance though it is never about looking out for the employees, its always protecting the senior team, and also conversations start way before administration with dealings being brokered about what point to put the company in to administration to maximise profit for the new owners.

I was just listening to Radio 2, the hate for this deal is astonishing. I don’t beleive there was any other option, so the choices were 1) This one 2) Shut up shop and everyone loses.

I think option 1 is better. It at least gives the employees time to find another job should they wish instead of being out of work on Monday!

It’s not only the staff.

If the Epsom store closes that will leave a huge hole in the middle of the shopping centre. I can’t imagine who could fill such a big void.

Oooh let me dwell on that for 1 second ..

Howsabout a Sports Direct Mega-store 😁

I think that’s the same in a lot of places. Bath would certainly be the same. The stores a massive, and not at all able to be readily carved up into something manageable.

I’d love the high street to be what it was, but then I do most of my shopping online as I have 10 mile drive to any high street so I’m certainly part of the problem!

Shopping is changing, the internet is the new shopping centre.

When kids now grow up they will only know what shopping centers were like from history lessons.

The bigger picture is what worries me. So much of our economy is based around selling tat to people that don’t need it. Something that it is becoming increasingly apparent can largely be done, relatively, for spit in terms of ongoing costs if you have enough money to make a big infrastructure investment (a la Amazon).

So…… when the folk who used to work selling tat lose their jobs, they stop buying so much tat themselves and so the spiral quickens. Or they do it on credit, and the spiral doesn’t really get going before the whole lot goes over a precipice. Thankfully, we were far-sighted enough not to vote for an unnecessary bit of nationalist tub-thumping which will reduced the disposable income of the majority of people in the country………….. oh, no…………… sorry, we did vote for that.

I suppose in the long run it will suppress consumption of natural resources if no one can afford to buy anything other than food.

Then again, probably not as our appetite for tat will just stay the same, the tat will just have to be produced cheaper and dirtier……

Pre-Pack Administrations are just another way of kicking the can down the road in reality.

Inevitably the administrators take a huge fee as it has to be done bureaucratically and ‘by the book’ to maintain the appearance of morality.

But in its basest terms it is allowing poorly performing and/or poorly performing businesses with a politically embarrassing number of potential redundancies to wipe off their obligations and start again – usually smaller to some extent. Cold comfort to the creditors who get stiffed. A bit better for the employees, assuming they aren’t too close to pension age and have been with the company long enough to have some kind of DB pension. Or if they have to deal with recently stiffed creditors in any capacity ever again. Small creditors can go bust, so there are many real and immediate casualties – especially nasty tasting because large companies tend to screw longer credit terms out of smaller ones…….

Part of the issue is for most things you don’t need them immediately and don’t need to physically see them, so you can order them at lunch and have everything delivered. No parking, queuing or crowds… I was looking at something in a store yesterday but I can get it £90 delivered direct from manufacturer or £150 from a HoF type store. I would accept around 10% convenience fee…

i do miss HMV from before it was just a dumping ground with “sale” items everywhere and Woolworths.

i do miss HMV from before it was just a dumping ground with “sale” items everywhere and Woolworths.

Post Spotify, I (personally) don’t see any need to buy any music media ever again….

So much of our economy is based around selling tat to people that don’t need it.

Definitely the Sports Direct model!

I was just listening to Radio 2, the hate for this deal is astonishing.

King of Chavs buys upper middle class chain store – I thing it’s pretty obvious that won’t down well in Radio 4 households 😉

Post Spotify, I (personally) don’t see any need to buy any music media ever again….

If all the music you like is on Spotify, you don’t like music that much really. You might as well just listen to Radio 2 and be done with it…

I thing it’s pretty obvious that won’t down well in Radio 4 households

Thing what you like, but he said Radio 2.

good discussion here about the death of the high street

Amazon pays just £38m in business rates despite making £9bn in sales

The bigger picture is what worries me.

Athena disappeared years ago, it is too late to worry about it.

good discussion here about the death of the high street

It’s just changing…

In the 20 years since I’ve lived here the main high street has gone from 95% shops to maybe 70% experience orientated premises eg cafes / restaurants / bars / tattoo parlours / hairdressers etc. Absolutely thriving as a result and in summer there are loads of chairs and tables out on the pavements and people socialising (which you didn’t see 10 years ago).

Completely different but probably busier than it’s ever been.

upper middle class chain store 

Guessing you haven’t been in HoF recently? They are pretty grim really.

Guessing you haven’t been in HoF recently? They are pretty grim really.

Actually never! Don’t have one near Cambridge.

Post Spotify, I (personally) don’t see any need to buy any music media ever again….

The entire ire experience of going to a store finding something new, interacting with some different people or just picking up an album because you like the look of the cover.

Everything is now fed to me via sponsorship or promotion and if I want something else I need to actively work to find something different.

Its not about the physical media but the experience which is long dead…

The entire ire experience of going to a store finding something new, interacting with some different people or just picking up an album because you like the look of the cover.

I discover new stuff all the time on Spotify or via the radio. I just don’t have to go into town to do so…

I also prefer the convenience of having playlists sync between work / home / mobile than making mix tapes and having to carry them about etc.

If the Epsom store closes that will leave a huge hole in the middle of the shopping centre. I can’t imagine who could fill such a big void.

You mean the (Mike) Ashley centre. HoF pretty much looks out at Sports Direct there too, maybe the name is actually pretty accurate

If all the music you like is on Spotify, you don’t like music that much really. You might as well just listen to Radio 2 and be done with it…

It’s funny cos it’s true 🤗🤗

Just read on Twitter (so may not be verifiably true) that the rent on HoF’s Oxford street store is / was double Amazons tax bill.

Makes you think

HOF where going to be the lead tenant in the new failed shopping centre in chester, they pulled out a few months ago, and the whole centre is now in doubt, council now planning on more housing, and still not a brick has been laid or anything built, city centre shopping is failing, and being replaced with costa lotta coffe shops and restraunts.

It’s just changing…

In the 20 years since I’ve lived here the main high street has gone from 95% shops to maybe 70% experience orientated premises eg cafes / restaurants / bars / tattoo parlours / hairdressers etc. Absolutely thriving as a result and in summer there are loads of chairs and tables out on the pavements and people socialising (which you didn’t see 10 years ago).

Completely different but probably busier than it’s ever been.

Exactly.  People seem to see the loss of the formulaic chain store filled high street as only a bad thing.  Providers on the high street need to just provide something people actually want/need that can’t just be purchased more easily online.  The cafe’s, bars etc,. are of more social benefit than another chain store while also employing the same or more people

Agreed, although I do think the tax situation needs sorting out, at the moment it massively favours the large corporate over the small “mom and pop” shop. But I doubt it will actually change, the corporations are too powerful and political donors.