The Guardian (including associated Sports Direct chat)

[ian1964 10,444]

If you remember right, we played Newcastle in a friendly a coupe of years ago and they had a big banner telling us to "support the team, not the regime"...

 

Maybe I go on the wrong sites but every time I look on the Geordies forums they show absolute contempt for Rangers & Scottish football,why would I or any Rangers fan give a flying fuck about them?

[Thinker 886]

Maybe I go on the wrong sites but every time I look on the Geordies forums they show absolute contempt for Rangers & Scottish football,why would I or any Rangers fan give a flying fuck about them?

 

You can't judge an entire support by the crap that gets posted on forums. God help us if we were judged by what appears on some of ours.

[limeburner 0]

Newcastle,are where they are----re ashley.The only people that can help them are themselves.

I suggested months ago ,that they should consider not going to games. I was shot down in flames and was told that because of the vast amount of TV monies they recieve,this wouldnt make a blind bit of difference.It would seem this is not the case.It really is up to themselves.IMO.

[buster. 4,808]

The Newcastle angle would become a more pressing issue for Ashely if relegation became a very real prospect. Not only for the further unhappiness of Newcastle fans but also because of how dropping into the Football League would affect agreements regards his shareholding in Rangers.

 

At the moment they are in a dangerous position but there is a long way to go, including a transfer window.

[SteveC 150]

[/b]

In fairness, it was difficult for us and he wasn't actually the owner of us. Plus Newcastle don't have their version of Dave King. I think our supporters should offer advice to them and any help we can give - it's in our mutual interests.

 

Indeed and we are far from having achieved it yet.

[ian1964 10,444]

You can't judge an entire support by the crap that gets posted on forums. God help us if we were judged by what appears on some of ours.

 

I'm not,but I still don't care about any other team/club!

[forlanssister 3,050]

Guardian not letting up.....

 

 

Revealed: how Sports Direct stripped USC assets before it collapsed

 

Documents show Sports Direct transferred store leases from fashion subsidiary USC to another wholly owned subsidiary, Republic.

 

[imghttps://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/80135a0434027dfedd310f9e84cbf8c770629613/0_16_3000_1799/master/3000.jpg?w=620&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&[/img]

 

Sports Direct, the FTSE 100 retailing giant controlled by the billionaire Mike Ashley, stripped prime assets out of its stricken USC fashion subsidiary in the weeks before the chain collapsed, an investigation by the Guardian can reveal.

 

The demise of USC, which was controversially bought straight out of administration by another arm of Sports Direct in January, led to around 200 workers being given just 15 minutes warning they were to lose their jobs.

 

The episode has since seen Sports Direct’s chief executive, David Forsey, charged with a criminal offence for allegedly failing to give the 30 days’ notice required for redundancies under employment law. Forsey denies the charge. Meanwhile, Ashley has been accused of using “disgraceful and unlawful employment practices” during the incident.

 

The discovery follows the Guardian’s revelations on Wednesday about how the retailer’s temporary warehouse workers are subjected to an extraordinary regime of searches and surveillance, with undercover reporters unearthing evidence that thousands of workers were receiving effective hourly rates of pay below the minimum wage.

 

The company was branded as a “scar on British business” by the Institute of Directors, and was criticised by some of its own shareholders. Opposition MPs demanded that the company be investigated by HMRC.

 

USC went into administration on 13 January 2015, but the Guardian has obtained documents showing that Sports Direct transferred leases of some USC stores to another wholly owned Sports Direct subsidiary, Republic, during November and December 2014.

 

In November 2014 the lease on USC’s store in Livingston was moved to Republic, while two days before Christmas the leases on USC’s Aberdeen, Doncaster, Dundee, Edinburgh and Hull stores were all transferred in the same manner.

 

A source close to one of the December lease transfers said: “The change of ownership happened because the USC store was performing quite well and Sports Direct didn’t want to put that into the administration, so they changed the name on the lease to Republic”.

 

Meanwhile, the ownership of USC’s trademark was switched to another Sports Direct company. That change was registered at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) on 19 December 2014, less than a month before the administration.

 

Sports Direct chief executive David Forsey was charged with a criminal offence for allegedly failing to give the 30 days’ notice required for redundancies under employment law.

 

The transfer of the brand out of USC, which IPO documents say had been agreed in 2011 between the two Sports Direct companies, effectively ensured that Sports Direct was the only possible candidate to buy USC out of administration. The swift in and out administration process had relieved the chain of staff and debts.

 

The collapse of USC caused a huge furore in January over the way Sports Direct had treated staff at its subsidiary and led to a parliamentary inquiry by the Scottish Affairs Committee in March.

 

At one session, Philip Duffy of USC’s joint administrator, Duff & Phelps, told MPs: “The only potential purchaser [of USC] I would consider would be a Sports Direct group member because USC only owned the stock in the stores, subject to [licensing restrictions]. It didn’t have any warehouse stock so it couldn’t replenish the stores. It didn’t own the brand, USC. USC [the brand] was owned by Sports Direct.”

 

Duffy told the Guardian: “The joint administrators have complied with their statutory obligations to file a report with the department for business, innovation and skills and have acted in the best interests of all of the creditors of the company”.

 

He declined to make any further comment so as “not to prejudice any future potential recoveries into the administration estate”.

 

 

Meanwhile, one insider with direct knowledge of USC told the Guardian that Sports Direct had been transferring leases out of USC and into Republic for months, if not years.

 

He said that landlords who were prepared to renegotiate leases with USC saw their stores transferred out of USC and into Republic, while those who resisted Sports Direct’s efforts to get better terms were left inside USC. “If a landlord played ball they were OK,” he said. “You don’t win against Mike [Ashley].”

 

Republic was granted a new lease on the USC store in Brighton in November 2013, while when USC relocated its Leicester store in March 2014, the lease holder became Republic, despite the shop being branded as USC.

 

Duffy added: “We were initially contacted on 14 November 2014 and I am unaware of any prior discussions or planning regarding timetables for an administration appointment.”

 

In October the Guardian revealed that Forsey had been charged with a criminal offence relating to the collapse of its fashion retailer USC.

 

Around 200 workers at USC’s warehouse in Dundonald lost their jobs – with around 80 permanent warehouse staff arguing they had not been properly consulted.

 

Along with Robert Palmer, a compliance and technical partner at the Gallagher Partnership - who were joint administrators - Forsey pleaded not guilty to a charge of failing to notify the business secretary at least 30 days before the warehouse workers were laid off. The offence of failure to notify carries a maximum penalty of £5,000. Both Sports Direct and Gallaghers declined to comment.

 

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Chesterfield magistrates’ court in March, while a separate civil conduct investigation was kicked off by BIS in October. BIS has the power to ban somebody from serving as a director for up to 15 years.

 

Timetable leading up to USC administration

14 November 2014: Insolvency firm Gallaghers meets with Sports Direct in its role as as a secured creditor of its wholly owned subsidiary USC to discuss a debt due.

 

23 November 2014: USC’s Livingston store is transferred to Republic, another wholly owned Sports Direct company.

 

17 December 2014: Gallaghers, along with another insolvency firm Duff & Phelps, meet with USC after a statutory demand was issued to USC by one of its creditors (Diesel) for outstanding invoices. The demand had an expiry date of 31 December.

 

19 December 2014: USC’s trademark registration is transferred out of USC to another company wholly owned by Sports Direct (USC IP Ltd).

 

23 December 2014: USC’s Aberdeen, Doncaster, Dundee, Edinburgh and Hull stores are all transferred to Republic.

 

6 January 2015: Notice to appoint an administrator filed.

 

13 January 2015: USC enters administration. Only then are 200 warehouse workers given 15 minutes notice they are to lose their jobs. 28 USC stores get sold back to Sports Direct’s Republic subsidiary in the pre-pack administration deal.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/11/revealed-how-sports-direct-stripped-usc-assets-before-it-collapsed

 

[buster. 4,808]

Monday 14th December

 

Sports Direct: minister to face question over minimum wage enforcement

 

Labour’s Chuka Umunna is granted request for urgent question on what ministers are doing to enforce law following Guardian investigation of retailing giant.

 

A Treasury minister has been summoned to the Commons to explain what the government is doing to ensure Sports Direct pays the minimum wage.

 

The Speaker, John Bercow, granted a request for an urgent question on Monday afternoon from the former shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna to ask ministers what they are doing to enforce the minimum wage in this case.

 

The move was prompted by a Guardian investigation that revealed many Sports Direct workers effectively earn below the minimum wage because they were forced to wait for about 15 minutes after each shift to be searched by security staff.

 

The retailer’s working practices contribute to many staff being paid an effective rate of about £6.50 an hour against the statutory rate of £6.70 – potentially saving the FTSE 100 firm millions of pounds a year at the expense of some of the poorest workers in the UK.

 

 

Full article at

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/14/sports-direct-minister-to-face-question-over-minimum-wage-enforcement

[buster. 4,808]

Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley is a monster of a man' says warehouse local MP Dennis Skinner

 

Video / House of Commons

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sports-direct-owner-mike-ashley-is-a-monster-of-a-man-says-mp-whose-constituency-the-companys-a6772941.html

[ian1964 10,444]