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Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Jon Robinson

Footasylum opens first store since near £40m sell off by JD Sports

Footasylum has opened its first new store since it was sold by JD Sports for almost £40m.

The Rochdale-based retailer's new shop in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, is also its first since April 2021.

The new 6,000 sq ft store is located in the Brookfield Shopping Park and brings Footasylum’s total number of stores to 60.

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JD Sports was forced to sell Footasylum for £37.5m by the Competition and Markets Authority earlier this year.

The Bury-headquartered giant originally purchased the brand in March 2019 for £90m.

It is now owned by Germany-based asset management group Aurelius Group.

In November, BusinessLive reported that Footasylum posted a revenue of £280.8m for the 12 months to January 29, 2022, up from £232m.

Its pre-tax profits also jumped from £348,000 to £11.1m over the same period.

According to the documents filed with Companies House, Footasylum's store sales increased from £95.8m to £143.7m while its online revenue rose from £125.8m to £128.6m. However, wholesale declined from £10.3m to £8.4m.

Footasylum's UK sales grew from £221.2m to £270m and from £9.5m to £9.6m in Europe but dipped from £1.2m to £1.1m in the rest of the world.

The number of people employed by the company during the year declined from 1,621 to 1,492.

Footasylum said it has a "strong pipeline of new openings" planned for 2023.

Barry Bown, executive chairman and CEO of Footasylum, said: "We’re delighted to be opening our 60th store at a fantastic site in Cheshunt near the A10 corridor into London.

"This is our first new opening since April 2021, and should be taken as a clear sign of how strongly the business is trading due to the ongoing demand for our brands.

"As we look ahead to 2023, we have exciting plans for further expansion and are confident that we can continue to grow at pace despite the current macroeconomic uncertainty."

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