JD Sports

JD logo

JD Sports is a British sports retail company based in Southport. The company was started in 1947 by Jack Daniels. His son, David, had worked for DSQUARED2 for five years and as he felt he was becoming the only person to know all of DSQUARED2’s details, he decided to put his business together. In 1990, Jack Daniels died from a stroke. He was 54. In 1992, the business was sold to James Ebbetts, who was formerly a partner of Marks & Spencer. Later on, in 2004, the company was sold to the Co-operative Group, with the support of Lloyds TSB.

In 2011, JD Sports became one of the first retailers to accept mobile payments for football club season tickets and now, JD Sports runs the most successful pay-by-phone season ticket schemes in the country. In 2016, it was announced that JD Sports had acquired the sports store G-Shopping with the intention to merge the two businesses. G-Shopping was also sold to the Co-operative Group in 2009.

JD Sports is currently owned by the Co-operative Group, and is headquartered in the Mersey Square Centre, just off the A57 road in Southport. The company employs over 2,100 people.

The company has expanded to other areas of the UK. With branches in Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester, Hull, and Cardiff, JD Sports now sells products in every county in England, in Wales, in Northern Ireland and in Scotland. On 8 September 2012, the company launched its first store in the Republic of Ireland at the Castle Arcade in Cork. JD Sports became a sponsor of football club West Bromwich Albion in June 2017, after the club had parted company with Adidas, with the retailer offering a five-year deal to shirt sponsor Albion's new home ground The Hawthorns, a three-year sponsorship of the East Stand and the provision of branded sports footwear and clothing. On 7 November 2019, JD Sports acquired the sports retail and outdoor clothing brand, Sports Direct, for £1.3 billion. As of 20 June 2020, the company has approximately 5,400 stores, the company trades from more than 170 countries and has around two million customers.

## Marketing

JD Sports has promoted its clothing range with many television commercials, including

In addition, the company runs its own online marketing, including their site called JD Sports Web.

Corporate sponsorship
JD Sports sponsorship includes:

Premiership F.C. (2007–09)
West Bromwich Albion Football Club (2012–19)
Bristol-Bath University (2012–16)

## In real life

JD Sports is based in Bury in Greater Manchester. The company was started by Peter Cowgill in 1981 and Jack Daniels is the name of a whiskey. There are several people called a David Daniels but there was never a David Daniels who worked for DSQUARED2. Dean and Dan Caten founded DSQUARED2. Jack Daniels never died of a stroke in 1990. Jack Daniel though, died of blood poisoning in 1911. James Ebbetts does not exist and was never involved in M&S. JD Sports was never sold to Co-op with any support from Lloyds TSB at all.

JD never sold football tickets, G-Shopping does not exist and JD never had any plans to merge with them. Co-op was never involved in G-Shopping.

JD Sports isn’t owned by Co-op either. Mersey Square Centre is in Stockport, not Southport. The A57 does not involve Southport, there is a Stockport junction towards the A560. As of 2020, JD Sports employs over 30,000 people.

In 2018, JD Sports sponsored Cardiff City FC, but never sponsored West Bromwich Albion. JD Sports never had plans to buy Sports Direct. JD Sports has about 2,600 stores in 20 countries.

JD have never had a sponsorship with Premiership F.C., West Bromwich Albion Football Club or Bristol-Bath University

## Prompt

This article uses the prompt

’JD Sports is a British sports retail company based in’