- JD Sports boss Peter Cowgill steps down from executive roles after 18 years
- Follows governance review at retailer
The surprise removal of JD Sports’ (JD.) long-standing executive chair sent shares tumbling by 12 per cent, after the sportswear chain yielded to governance concerns by deciding to split the chair and chief executive roles. Accountant-turned-fashion-boss Peter Cowgill has stepped down “with immediate effect” from both his positions, which he has held jointly since 2014, having first serving as executive chair in 2004.
For now, audit and risk committee chief Helen Ashton has taken on the role of non-executive chair, while independent director Kath Smith has become interim chief executive.
“As our business has become bigger and more complex, what is clear is that our internal infrastructure, governance and controls have not developed at the same pace,” said Ashton. She said the board is committed to ensuring the “highest standards of corporate governance and controls appropriate to a FTSE 100 company”.
Susannah Streeter, a senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said it was Cowgill’s “resistance to splitting the role of chief executive and chairman” that prompted his departure.
This follows a similar move to redistribute power at online retailer The Hut Group (THG), where former ITV (ITV) head Charles Allen took over the role of chair from founder and chief executive Matt Moulding in March after governance concerns had contributed to a decline in the share price.
Cowgill’s regime has come in for criticism in recent years over its remuneration policies, after receiving government furlough support, with shareholders blocking the re-election of remuneration committee head Andrew Leslie to the board last year.
Controversy reared its head again this year over the handling of a since-blocked merger with shoe retailer Footasylum, with the two companies being dealt a £4.7mn fine after the bosses of the two companies were alleged to have exchanged commercially sensitive information at secret car-park meetings.
‘’Being rapped over the knuckles by the competition regulator for sharing commercially sensitive information is never a good look and when add that to the row over remuneration, governance issues at the company appeared to be mounting,” said Streeter.
Nonetheless, Cowgill has been the “driving force behind the company’s success over the past two decades,” building partnerships with global brands like Nike and Adidas spearheading its US expansion.
The apparel chain briefly overtook Next (NXT) as the UK’s largest non-grocery retailer last year, after reporting a near nine-fold rise in pre-tax profits to £365mn in 2021.
JD Sports is due to report its next annual results in June, having said in February that it would delay publication in order to finish a review of its governance procedures and policies.
