Sports Direct slashes profit forecasts on sterling crash – Telegraph.co.uk

John Stevenson, analyst at Peel Hunt, said that it was “entirely self-inflicted” and that no other retailer would be face losses on trading overnight as other companies were hedged well into next year.

Sports Direct is still without a permanent chief financial officer, almost three years after Bob Mellors quit the business on the grounds of ill health. Matt Pearson has been “acting” chief financial officer since June last year, but is employed on a contract with just eight weeks’ notice and is paid £80,000 a year – less than his peers at companies of a similar size.

The beleaguered sportswear giant was one of the first companies to announce  just hours after the EU Referendum result that it would be affected by the pound’s slump. 

Sports Direct pays for the majority of its product in dollars and is considered by analysts to be one of the most vulnerable retailers to foreign exchange movements.

The currency hit is another headache for Mike Ashley, who last month took over as chief executive of the company he founded after Dave Forsey abruptly quit after three decades at the retailer.

The management reshuffle came after months of criticism of the company’s working practices, poor financial performance and City investor attacks on Sports Direct’s weak corporate governance.

However, sources have said that Mr Forsey’s breaking point was a “deterioration” in his relationship with Mr Ashley after the pugnacious tycoon was said to be furious about his chief executive’s involvement in reality TV series The Real Housewives of Cheshire.