Mike Ashley

Michael James Wallace Ashley (born 9 September 1964) is a British retail entrepreneur who is the founder and former chief executive of Frasers Group plc (formerly Sports Direct International).

Ashley was born in Walsall in the West Midlands in 1964 and grew up in Burnham.

His father was a manager at a food distribution depot.

Ashley was educated at Burnham Grammar School in Burnham, Buckinghamshire and left school at 16 to become a county-level squash player.

After an injury, he worked as a county-level squash coach.

In 1982, at age 18, he opened his first sport and ski shop in Maidenhead with a £10,000 loan from his family.

The chain quickly expanded in and around London and in the late 1990s, Ashley rebranded the chain as Sports Soccer.

He was a sole trader and was not required to file accounts at Companies House; Sports Soccer became a limited liability company in 1999.

In 2000, Ashley gave the Office of Fair Trading evidence of business meetings held by sports retailers to fix the price of football shirts.

At a meeting held at Allsports' chairman David Hughes' home in Cheshire, Dave Whelan reportedly told Ashley: "There's a club in the north, son, and you're not part of it."

The first brand Ashley added to his portfolio was Donnay Sports, followed by Dunlop Slazenger in February 2003, which he purchased for £40 million.

He acquired Karrimor in March 2003 and later purchased Kangol for £10 million.

Ashley took a £9 million stake and signed a long-term deal with Umbro.

He also had a 29.4% stake in Blacks Leisure Group, owner of Millets and Mambo, and in 2005 purchased 9% stake in JJB Sports and 19% stake in JD Sports.

Ashley hired Merrill Lynch for an initial public offering in November 2006 and the group was initially valued at up to £2.5bn ahead of the flotation on the London Stock Exchange.

In mid-2006, he took a 25% stake in Matalan and installed mezzanine floors in larger Matalan stores for Sports World outlets.

In 2006, it overtook JJB Sports as the UK's largest sportswear retailer.

He also owns Lonsdale.

He owned the Newcastle United football club between 2007 and 2021.

According to The Sunday Times Rich List in 2023, Ashley is the 49th richest person in the UK with an estimated net worth of £3.84 billion.

In August 2021, Ashley announced that he intended to step down as CEO of Frasers Group plc in May 2022, but would remain a director of the main Board.

On 23 May 2007, Ashley bought Sir John Hall's 41.6% stake in Newcastle United at one pound per share, for a total cost of £55,342,223 via his company St James Holdings Ltd. Under the terms of UK takeover law, purchases of more than 30% of a company require the buyer to offer to buy remaining shares at the same or greater price.

On 31 May, it was reported that the Newcastle board were considering Ashley's offer and, on 7 June, chairman Freddy Shepherd agreed to sell his 28% share to Ashley.

On 31 January 2010, an episode of BBC North East and Cumbria's Inside Out, titled "Mike Ashley Uncovered," journalist and host Chris Jackson travelled to Thailand to visit Lonsdale's factories.

His experiences purchasing Newcastle United without knowing how much debt the club was in was also detailed.

Neither Ashley nor his representatives showed interest in taking part in the film, declaring that the film was producing a majority of inaccuracies.

They did, however, state that they would be reviewing the film closely.

No further comments were made.

In 2016, he was ordered by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to investigate working conditions at a Sports Direct warehouse in Shirebrook following allegations of misconduct.

During the hearing, MPs compared Sports Direct to a "Victorian workhouse."

On 26 July 2017, Ashley won a high court dispute against investment banker Jeffrey Blue, who alleged that during a "night of heavy drinking" at the Horse and Groom pub in London, Ashley agreed to pay Blue £15 million if Sport Direct's shares doubled to £8.

The Justice ruled that no-one would have thought that what Ashley said was serious.

In 2019, there were more than 400 Sports Direct, Lillywhites, and USC stores in the United Kingdom and employed more than 20,000 people across the UK, Ireland, Belgium and Slovenia.

Sports Direct acquired a 38.5% stake in retailer Game Digital and, in June 2019, Ashley placed a £52 million bid to buy The Times.

In February 2020, he bought a 12.5% stake in Mulberry and, in August, his Fraser Group purchased assets from DW Sports Fitness in a deal worth up to £44 million.

The group initially bought 46 leisure clubs and 31 retail outlets from DW Sports Fitness for £37 million to merge with its own business.

In February 2023, it was announced that he was in advanced negotiations to buy The Mall Luton and Overgate Centre for a combined total of £100m.

In March 2020, Ashley and Sports Direct were criticised after an announcement that they would stay open despite increased government restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

A few days later, they announced that they would be closing until given the green light to reopen by the government.

In 2020, The Guardian reported that an undercover investigation revealed that working conditions had improved only incrementally.