Some 1,100 jobs disappear as Perry Sport, Aktiesport & Sprinter parent company goes bust

The District Court of Amsterdam declared Sports Unlimited Retail bankrupt on Wednesday, RTL Z reported. The limited company holds ownership over the Dutch sporting goods stores Perry Sport and Aktiesport, as well as the Dutch branches of Sprinter. Sports Unlimited Retail employs a total of 1,100 people, whose jobs could all disappear.

The Aalsmeer company, Sports Unlimited Retail, is owned by British retail giant JD Sports Fashion Plc. "We understand that it is a difficult time for our colleagues in the Netherlands, and are doing our utmost to support them in collaboration with the curator," a spokesperson for JD Sports told RTL Z. The company's JD Sports retail stores in the Netherlands will not be impacted by the bankruptcy.

JD Sports acquired Perry Sport and Aktiesport when their previous parent, Unlimited Sports Group, went out of business in 2016. At the time, there were about 190 retail outlets between the two brands.

There are now only 52 outlets remaining, including 17 from Aktiesport, 12 from Perry Sport, and 23 under the Sprinter brand. In the seven years since the takeover, many of the Perry and Aktiesport stores have been converted to Sprinter shops, the bankruptcy administrator told RTL Z.

Sports Unlimited Retail has been under financial strain for years, the media outlet noted. The company incurred a loss of nearly 9 million euro in 2021. The Aalsmeer firm said in its reporting that it anticipated that JD Sports would keep it afloat, and did not think bankruptcy would be an issue, RTL Z reported.

The annual report from JD Sports Fashion Plc. released this year states that there were a total of 70 retail outlets from Perry Sport and Aktiesport in the Netherlands at the end of January. A year earlier, there were 82 such stores. This past March, JD Sports also completed construction of a 57,600 square meter warehouse space in Heerlen to be used as a European distribution hub.

That same report also stated the possibility of divesting all of the company's Dutch retail businesses as part of an ongoing negotiation in a separate business deal.