Lillywhites, the famous sportswear store which has branches in Newcastle, Nottingham and Leeds and London’s Piccadilly may be up for sale.
The prospective buyer is Blacks Leisure, the high street sports shop and camping gear group, which is understood to be in talks with Portuguese company Jeronimo Martins, which bought Lillywhites in 1995.
Neither company would confirm today that a deal was in the offing.
But a spokeswoman for Jeronimo Martins, a major retail group in Portugal, said that one of its directors was in London for talks.
Blacks, which owns the First Sport chain, issued a statement via the Stock Exchange saying it was in “non-exclusive, exploratory discussions” with Jeronimo about “the possible development” of its UK sports retail operations.
Martins, which paid Forte £28.5m for the Picadilly-based group in 1995, is thought to want to sell after abandoning plans to expand Lillywhites internationally. It may be planning to sell a 50% stake in Lillywhites, valued at around £10m.
EGi News 08/06/98
