UKH

Nevisport, the scottish based outdoor company went into liquidation on Friday 6th October.

If you have any credit notes or gift vouchers you will need to use them before they become worthless.Also if you have any returns/repairs you need to get them back or you may lose them.

All branches are currently closed but as far as I can find out the following branches will reopen for limited trading.

Edinburgh - Rose St
Middlesbrough
Fort William
York
and a couple of others that I don't know about.

If you do go to the branches and the staff seem bloody annoyed, it's because we're not getting paid for the last months wage that we're owed.

In reply to corriethepenguin:

I thought it had just been sold!!!!!!!

"SPORTS Direct, the acquisitive and recently floated retailer, has acquired the struggling Fort William-based outdoor retailer Nevisport, according to weekend reports. The move is being seen as a further sign that consolidation in the sportswear industry continues apace."

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=09&year=2007#40145

September 24, 2007

"Mike Ashley, the controversial sports goods billionaire, is understood to have made yet another addition to his retail empire with the acquisition of Nevisport, a Scottish outdoor goods chain.

Sports Direct, the sportswear retailer controlled by Mr Ashley, is thought to have snapped up the 12-outlet chain, founded in 1970 in Fort William by two rock climbers."


http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2175478,00.html

In reply to corriethepenguin:

I was in the Edinburgh store on Saturday, picking up a cheap Macpac rucksack. They'd just taken delivery of the stock remnants from the Glasgow shop (which has closed), and they're expecting the Edinburgh shop to be closed soon.

Bit of a shame - there was a time when Nevisport was quite good...

In reply to corriethepenguin:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7035200.stm

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
>SPORTS Direct, the acquisitive and recently floated retailer...
These are the people that did all those wonderful things with the Karrimor brand.

Perhaps they want their own "outdoors" brand. They already have a stake in Blacks I believe.

In reply to dread-i:

Karrimor did all those wonderfull things to Karrimor, like becoming a high street retailer, pissing off all their external accounts who promptly rang the North Face reps and thus Karrimor got well and truly burned.

What I never understood, was why there was such a difference between stores.

Aviemore was quite a poor store compare to the likes of Fort William. IMHO of course.

In reply to Knitted Simian:
That is the business side of things. I was referring to the brand.

Once they made high quality kit that lasted for years. Now their brand logo is slapped on all sorts of things that, in my opinion, are not of the same sort of quality as the original.

In reply to corriethepenguin:

Have also heard rumours that the stores will be rebranded as Field and Trek stores. Not sure how true this is.

In reply to Caralynr:
They own 60% of them. Seems that they have the outdoors market sewn up.
http://www.citywire.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?VersionID=94203
http://www.abcmoney.co.uk/news/13200722683.htm

In reply to dread-i:

Probably a fair point.

In reply to corriethepenguin:

Shame.

I remember standing in the deserted streets of Fort William (in mid summer) in the pouring rain gazing longingly into the tiny (and only) Nevisport shop window at the extra-heavy leather boots that I couldn't afford (or at least that my folks would never buy me).
Thirty years ago.
They always were a bit pricey ...

In reply to corriethepenguin:

It's a shame they're bust.
I didn't shop there at all in latter years for various reasons- mostly choice and pricing.
The guy who bought the Karrimor name is producing at least one bit of decent Karrimor branded kit- a windproof Pertex ripstop full zip jacket with hood. £11 in Sports Soccer shops. That'll do for me.

Davie

In reply to Scomuir:
"KPMG said that Nevisport had been suffering from increased competition and this year's sales had been hit by unseasonable weather."

It rained a lot, so they didn't sell as many waterproofs?

In reply to Simon Caldwell:


or they over extended the summer line and no one wanted lightweight breathable shirts.....

In reply to corriethepenguin:

In the late 50's and early 60's IIRC Karrimor only did saddlebags and pannier bags for bikes (and motorbikes) - and damn good ones at that. -- Company name was Carradice.

I believe their first venture into the outdoor market was with the original Whillans Alpinist Sack (though I could be wrong on that one)

Their first venture away from bags was with the KSB boot, then the retailing and clothing followed.

In reply to Knitted Simian: Exactly!



Also Mike Ashley doen't own the company yet. It was bought by a newly set up holding company whose director is one of his area managers for Sports direct.

In reply to corriethepenguin: anyone know if the Leeds one is still open ?

In reply to lummox: AFAIK the Leeds store has shut and all the left over stock has gone to the York store which is still open for the time being with 20% off everything.

In reply to Emily Goodman: thnaks Emily.

Shame that they've gone under. As has been said already. Tisos has a virtual monopoly on climbing gear in Glasgow and Edinburgh. You'll never get much of a discount from Tisos either.

In reply to hmac84:
Maybe that's why they are still in business.
Climbers aren't good customers.
Sunday strollers are the cash cows.

In reply to hmac84:


Didn't always? I worked in Nevisport Edinburgh for a while and, despite my best efforts, was primarily a ski shop. The climbing gear it did sell was Cassin stuff that thye impotted themselves. It was so crap it never even occured to me to nick any :-0

I'm not surprised it went bust, just surprised it lasted this long. I came from Cotswold to Nevisport and in terms of business it was years behind.

In reply to Emily Goodman:

This is amazing - a few years ago Leeds lost Centre Sports, and now Nevisport is gone! I can't believe that a largish city within easy reach of so many classic climbing areas can't support a dedicated outdoor gear shop in its centre. We've still got Millets and Blacks, but from what I remember they don't stock skiing and climbing gear. So that just leaves us the shop at Leeds Wall, which is fine, but a bit out of the way for a special trip.

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

That's being rather simplistic. I think it's a fair point. Companies which operate on a primarily forward order basis are rather sensitive to the seasons (not that smaller outfits aren't, just less so), and I think it's fair to say we've had unseasonable weather for the last year or so.

In reply to Greg:
I've wondered that for some time.

In reply to Greg:

There's one in Otley - closer to the rock and easier to park.

It must be hard to sell climbing gear - it's not exactly high volume so the profit margin needs to be high, many of the punters are better informed than the staff and they're competing with online retailers. Combine that with city-centre rents and I guess it's a bit of a loser.

Makes buying shoes a bit of a pain though

In reply to Greg:
>I can't believe that a largish city within easy reach of so many classic >climbing areas can't support a dedicated outdoor gear shop in its centre

I think that climbing shops have a bit of a low turn over for stock. They sell good quality kit, that we use for perhaps 10+ years. There is no need to replace it unless it gets lost or really damaged. There isn't the weekly turn over of stock that other shops get. How often do you go in and buy things other than say chalk or tape ?

In reply to corriethepenguin:

I heard Sypeland Outdoors had put a bid in for them. FH has set up his own Private Equity company.

In reply to corriethepenguin: nevis sport in fort william always used to be a great place 20 years or so ago,but my local shop in York stopped being any good for a few years now ,not surprised at the news...

In reply to Lord of Starkness:
>
I am no expert but I am pretty sure that Carradice (of Nelson) and Karrimor have alwasy been separate. Carradice are still going and pretty successful I believe.

Karrimor used rucksack type materials eg cordura, whereas Carradice specialised in using duck cotton.

Karrimor stopped making panniers years ago. I had one of their bags about 20 years ago. Pretty good, but Carradice still had the edge in my view.

In reply to corriethepenguin: 20 years ago I bought a tent from the Fort William branch which they sent up on the next bus from Glasgow so I could take it up on the Ben that night. I thought that was good service and didn't mind that the cafe was a tad expensive.

In reply to corriethepenguin:


Ouch! Will raising hell at any given opportunity not help?

In reply to corriethepenguin:
Thats interesting, my understanding was that Sportsworld had bought Nevissport and were planning to change the stores into Field & Trek (who they also own).

for what reason are you not getting your last months wages, surely if SWI now own Nevissport they have to take on responsibility for paying you.

In reply to Anonymous: Please please please start to use smaller independant store like Outdoor shop at Stoney Stratford or Needle sports, if we don't use em' we'll loose em'

Steve

In reply to Anonymous:

Separate legal entity = no obligation to pay up, unless the new company can be proven to have been set up purely to avoid payment. Some companies do honour unpaid wages especially if they are rebranding and want to retain the staff (hooray for them), but there is a greater likelihood of the staff going without.

In reply to Ian W: Surely not being paid = no obligation to do any work? Never mind being surly, I can't understand why the staff are even bothering to go in if they know they're not going to get their money.

In reply to Chris James:
Not sure about the origins but by the 70s they were different companies and although Karrimor panniers & saddlebags were easier to find in the shops, Carradice seemed more robust (the pair of panniers I bought in 1979 are still in use, likewise a handlebar bag from the early 1980s)

In reply to Ian W:


http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemI...

There is a legal obligation for someone acquiring a business to take responsibility for its staff. If they want to get shot of them, contracted notice periods or redundancy arrangements still apply. Otherwise firms would be 'going bust' and selling businesses to themselves all the time to avoid redundancy costs.

In reply to Steve Humm 4395:

You mean "lose" them.

As I think I mentioned on another thread, there is a noticeable shortage of independent stores in Edinburgh and I think Glasgow too. Certainly in Edinburgh only Tisos now do climbing gear. New Heights on Lothian Road was an independent but they closed a few years back and yes, I did used to shop there - I got my first harness, rock shoes, helmet and belay device there, in fact.

With West Coast apparently gone for good, even Fort William only has Ellis Brigham (yeeuch) and soon presumably Field and Trek. At least Aviemore seems to be able to support a few independents eg Mountain Spirit and the one up in Rothiemurchus.

As someone mentioned previously, the declining number of places which sell climbing gear reduces the choice available for items that you really can't buy online, like rock shoes and winter mountaineering boots. If I have to go up to Aviemore to get a decent choice of footwear that'll be at least half a day gone out of my weekend - in winter, basically a whole useable day not spent on the hill. Bah!

In reply to Chris James:

If they did, then they must have started again. I bought some last year.

In reply to Martin W:

I think they intend to keep the FW store open.

In reply to Donald M:

"Liquidators of one of Scotland's leading outdoor sportswear retailers are hopeful of saving the company and 91 jobs after receiving two offers to buy what is left of the business.

It is understood that one of the suitors of Nevisport is Sports Direct, run by billionaire retail entrepreneur and Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, who put in an offer in time for the closing date of Monday evening.

Those involved in the sale of six remaining Nevisport stores confirmed that Sports Direct had an interest in the purchase prior to the retailer going into liquidation.





The Nevisport outlets would provide a market for Sports Direct's brand which includes Karrimor outdoor clothing and accessories.

Mr Ashley has previously snapped up independent brands such as Gilesports and Hargreaves and in July Sports Direct added a 60% stake in English outdoor clothing chain Field & Trek.|

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1747987.0.chink_of_hope_fo...


and


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7037138.stm

In reply to corriethepenguin:

Shame.

I imagine they got screwed by the internet as much as anything.

Compare retail store (rates, relatively high staff ratio, relatively high floor space, stock, "shrinkage", limited opening hours) with internet (much lower rates, relatively low staff ratio (picking), storeroom space, advertise stock you don't have, no pilfering, 24-7).

I wonder what proportion of current footfall goes on to make a net purchase of the item?

J

In reply to Moacs: They were competitively priced on the net - as they were instore (I bought more on line from them than actually visiting their shops). Or do you mean that there are just so many stores that you can pick from now?

In reply to Martin W:

I agree, that's probably why they shut the shops 1 week before payday which is exactly the 4 weeks we were due to be paid for....
Do you really think we would work for nothing?...we were cheated out of our wages and there is next to nothing we can do about it

In reply to Tyler:

What is the story with All-Terrain Clothing also closing? I only know of ONE store Located at Lomond Shores Balloch(Loch Lomond) Who owned them, and WAS it a one off shop ?

In reply to Anonymous:

in my humble unofficial opinion:
sports direct/world is unprofessionally run and they will get out of paying anything they dont have to. they are sneaky and im guessing they have good accountants!

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: The BBC are now reporting that Nevisport has been sold to Jacobs and Turner Limited: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7040199.stm - they own the Trespass brand and chain of stores.

Trespass seems to be mostly down-market waterproofs and ski gear - a bit like Millets. The article doesn't say what Trespass intend to do with the Nevisport shops, other than keep them open. In Edinburgh, Trespass already have quite a large shop in bang in the right area, opposite Blacks and just along from Tiso on Rose Street. I rather doubt that the Nevisport shop in Rose Street will actually stay open very long UNLESS the new owners decide to retain the Nevisport brand and pitch the shops more towards the "serious" outdoor market - and who knows, maybe even build up the range of climbing gear etc so that there will actually be some realistic choice available? But somehow I don't think that'll happen - if nothing else, because Nevisport themselves seemed to have been drifting away from that position in the market anyway.

In reply to Martin W:

It's possible that they haven't decided what they want to do with the new acquisition yet - it might be worth dropping them an email to suggest that stocking some good climbing gear is a possibly profitable direction for their new brand.

In reply to Martin W:

Now they can be more honest, in that Nevisport be maketed as an 'Outdoor' retailer like Millets, rather than a 'mountaineriing/climbing' retailer.

In reply to Norrie Muir:


The Nevisport on Shandwick Place in Edinburgh used to carry a half decent range of rock gear, but that dwindled away.

Does climbing equipment have low margins I wonder?

In reply to niggle:

for stores like nevisport and other "chains" plus most independants, climbing gear is not profitable, general outdoor and lifestyle clothing and accessories are where the profit comes from, climbing hardwear is a loss leader so to speak, the only stores who would say climbing gear is profitable are the few who spend loads on it and make little, i.e. they just make a profit,
climbers and cavers are generally tight wads, who dont want to spend over 4 quid for a crab, ramblers/walkers will spend 100 quid on boots, 80 quid on a fleece and 200 quid on a waterproof, and are less likely to ask for discount

hopefully you will find that nevisport does do some gear again, once they have paid off debts they probably ran up, which is why they didnt have any as it wasnt worth spending money on..

In reply to niggle:

I would not know what the margins now. I've only bought a pair of waterproof trousers from Nevisport in the last 25 years.

In reply to gear boy:


Climbers will spend £50-£80 on a pair of rockshoes, and probably buy new ones more frequently then people buy new walking boots.

Climbing hardware I can buy on the 'net if no-one wants to stock it locally. Stuff where fit matters, including things like rucksacks, harnesses and clothing as well as footwear, are much better chosen and bought from a real shop - provided you can find one that stocks and understands the specialist items you need for climbing as opposed to walking the dog. I'd prefer to use shops that are reasonably close to where I live for that, rather than having to give up my time in Aviemore, Fort William or Keswick trying stuff on in shops rather than heading out to the hills.


You may have a point there!

In reply to Martin W: more walkers than climbers(especially climbers that wear out a rock shoe in less than a year) therefore more sales, its the numbers game
and numbers dont add up on climbing gear its a passion not a profit making business

In reply to gear boy: Climbing gear can be profitable but just on a smaller scale than 'general' outdoor. I'm sure needlesports, rock and run, urbanrock etc all make profit by specializing and being good at what they do. If there was no profit at all the likes of Snow and Rock would have dumped climbing gear years ago.

In reply to gear boy: Manager in Tiso's Stirling branch several years ago told me he made most of his profit on wellington boots - he said they only really stocked climbing hardware as it was good for the image of the shop

In reply to niggle:
>>

Very low margins and low stock turnover. That's one of the main reasons why soom 'good' outdoor shops don't stock it.

In reply to Martin W:
Nevisport, as said before, has been bought by Tresspass.
As far as I can see they will continue to trade as Nevisport as a 'better more upmarket' type store.

Nevisport Glasgow is going to reopen on Monday.
Not sure regarding other stores as yet!

In reply to corriethepenguin:

I know, it was me that said it in the posting to which you appear to be replying...


Is this based on good information from within either Nevisport or Trespass, or just an assumption on your part?

In reply to Martin W: I was employed by nevisport for 14 years(Iuntill a week ago) and have spoken to workers in head office who are dealing with all the paaperwork.

In reply to corriethepenguin: Thanks for clarifying your sources, this does then sound like good news. Perhaps you could feed back to them that there is a demand for a bit more choice in the retailing of climbing equipment? I for one would welcome the opportunity to browse somewhere else in addition to Tisos when I feel the need of a gear "hit"!

In reply to Martin W:
So to clarify then.

Sportsworld bought Nevissport.
Nevissport went bust.
KPMG then had offers from Sportsworld & trespass to buy Nevissport. (but surely sportsworld already owned it)
Trespass won and now own Nevissport and Sportsworld are out of the picture.

I think???

In reply to corriethepenguin: Nathan, i hope things work out for you and the staff from Newcastle - i have nothing but praise for the levels of service i have received over the years, from buying my first rucksack (from Wilderness Ways, in St Nicholas Street) to my latest pair of skis.
Regards John

In reply to philo:

Sportsworld are a Plc with a full Stock Market listing, they are in business to generate profit for the share holders and are not some Marxian fair trade gear collective. If they can avoid incurring cost then they will.

If I was a shareholder I would bloody well hope they had good accountants. In fact, they use Grant Thornton, who I would suspect are a highly professional outfit.

Have you read the comapny annual report, or are you just playing Student Grant and shooting from the hip?


John

In reply to Anonymous:


Not sure where you get the bit about one of the bids being from Sportsworld. As you say, they already owned Nevisport so that woudn't make much sense. Although, a previous poster did mention that the Sportsworld ownership was through a subsidiary company, so maybe the subsidiary company let Nevisport go bust and the main company was bidding for it? That still doesn't sound right to me, though.


That seems to be the situation now, yes.

In reply to Anonymous:


Kind of!
As far as I understand it:

Sportsworld never bought Nevisport directly it was bought by a holding company which had just been set up with the director being the main area manager for sportsworld.

Nevisport directors got annoyed at the way various methods used during the take over such as removing all the computers from a head office before the sale had gone through.

Nevisport put itself into liquidation and the liquidators(KPMG)considered Sportsworlds offer of £2.5m for all the shops and stock to low so put the company up for offers.
They also declared the company insolvent hence no pay for the staff.

Trespass bought Nevisport but as to their plans to which branches they are keeping open I have only heard that Glasgow will reopen along with Rose St, Middlesbrough, York and a couple of others that were still trading.


Please note this is what I have heard and may have been subject to hearsay and panic

In reply to johnt:

Thanks John. I was always pround to how much effort the staff would put in to help customers even without being told. I think most of the staff will join the never ending circle of moving from one outdoor shop to another in Newcastle but at least they will be sorted for work which is what I'm most concerned about. Just need to get myself sorted now.
Nathan

In reply to corriethepenguin:
Good luck with everything, I hope you find something new soon.
As someone now working within the Sportsworld empire (due to recent acquisition) I am still trying to decide whether I am better on the insid looking out or on the outside as far away as possible.

In reply to niggle:

I used to buy the odd bit of rock gear and other outdoor stuff when they were in Shandwick Place, because they carried different stock from Tiso's and other places, and sometimes I preferred their stuff. I would always check them out when making a new purchase. But in later years they started moving their stock lines closer to the competition, and there became less reason to check them out. After moving to Rose St they seemed just to be stocking the same as the other outdoor shops, but less variety.

In reply to corriethepenguin: what a bunch o tossa,s you should nick some cams and sell em on ebay to get some money back