JD’s trainer king, Peter Cowgill, loses his crown – leaving big shoes to fill

theguardian.com:

He was the self-styled king of trainers, leading one of the high street’s coolest stores, but a string of missteps has led to Peter Cowgill, 69, being kicked out of the business he built.

After a board meeting at the group’s Bury headquarters last Wednesday, he exited with immediate effect – and JD Group’s shares dived by 18%.

Cowgill, the workaholic chair and chief executive of JD since 2004, oversaw a dramatic turnaround in the group’s fortunes, building its market value to 60 times what it was when he arrived, and creating a global brand.

He helped founders David Makin and John Wardle float the business in 1996, left in 2001 but was brought back three years later after profits dived in the wake of the ill-conceived acquisition of rival First Sport.

Since then Cowgill has ridden the casual dressing trend by making JD appealing to women, and by bagging exclusive deals with Nike and Adidas. He spotted the shift online and oversaw a string of audacious deals, starting with the acquisition of rival Allsports in 2005 and, most notably, entering the US market with the acquisition of Finish Line in 2018.

The Bolton lad, who attended De La Salle grammar school in Salford and had his first job with an accountant above a local barber’s shop, has seen his wealth grow alongside that of shareholders. In the past two years alone he has sold more than £53m of JD shares and retains a stake worth nearly £12m.

Seen as a stickler for detail who nevertheless likes to end the day in the pub, Cowgill told the Guardian in 2016 that the secret to JD’s success was: “We never rest on our laurels and we are gutted if there’s even a day when our numbers are negative.”

Chris Bird, the former Manchester City boss who was a non-executive director of JD for