Under-fire retailer Sports Direct is closing its golf driving range at Huddersfield’s John Smith’s Stadium.
The Direct Golf site will shut on Sunday (Nov 20) with the loss of eight jobs.
A notice advising customers of the closure has been posted at the premises.
An employee said staff had been sent a list of vacancies at other Sports Direct outlets if they wished to transfer, but as the nearest was in Nottingham it was likely all the staff would face redundancy.
He said: “It seems strange to shut it at this time of the year. With Christmas coming up, it is the busiest period of the winter for us.”
Sports Direct has already shut a number of Direct Golf sites across the country, including one at Leeds Road Mini Park. Those premises are now occupied by Major Golf Direct, an independently-owned business which has no connection to Sports Direct.
Sports Direct, headed by billionaire businessman and Newcastle United chairman Mike Ashley, failed to respond to a request from the Examiner for a comment on the closure.
Sports Direct acquired Direct Golf UK in October last year after Direct Golf and its parent company, Powerhouse Golf, went into administration in the wake of serious cash flow issues and the discovery of alleged accounting irregularities which had rendered the business insolvent. Sports Direct already had a 25% stake in Powerhouse Golf.
Businessman John Andrew, a former PGA golf professional who founded Direct Golf more than 24 years ago, was also ousted in a boardroom coup. At the time, Mr Andrew said he had tried to save the business and had pledged a personal investment of £1.8m – but Sports Direct refused to back his plan and removed Mr Andrew and two directors from the board.
It has also emerged that Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd (KSDL) had written a clause into its lease agreement a few years before Sports Direct acquired Direct Golf warning that the golf range site would be needed as part of the site of a proposed hotel under KSDL’s ambitious HD One development scheme. But KSDL managing director Gareth Davies, said events had overtaken that with Sports Direct giving notice of its intention to quit the site.
The closure decision follows another setback for Sports Direct in its efforts to restore its reputation following a long-running scandal over working practices and pay at its Shirebrook warehouse in Derbyshire. Last week, the retailer was accused of secretly recording six MPs from the Commons Business Innovation and Skills committee after they adjourned to a meeting room in Sports Direct’s offices following a tour of the warehouse.
Sports Direct said it did not authorise or have any knowledge of the possible recording device.
