Life Style Sports eyes European market as profits soar

Life Style Sports will soon open a new flagship store in Arnotts, while it is also limbering up to compete on the European retailing market, as new accounts for the family group that owns it show the business performed strongly last year.

Accounts to be filed shortly will show Stafford Holdings, the diversified group that owns Life Style, Stafford Fuels and Campus Oil, more than doubled its profits before tax to €5.75 million in the 12 months to the end of last September.

Total revenues in the group fell more than 5 per cent to €328.5 million, although much of this is attributable to the fall in the price of oil last year and had no apparent effect on the group’s profitability.

The Stafford group now has total assets €136 million and retained profits of €49 million. The accounts will also show that the members of the Stafford family that owns the business shared a cash dividend of €1.5 million last year, in addition to sharing €1.4 million in salaries and directors’ fees.

The family was unavailable for comment on the financial statements that were obtained by The Irish Times, and are due to be filed later this week. However, Victor Stafford, the group's chairman, noted in the accounts that Life Style drove much of the group's growth.

He also noted that the Stafford group has renegotiated its banking facilities with bank of Ireland, stretching out repayments and drastically reducing its annual commitments.

It is understood that the Stafford family recently signed off on a new five-year strategic plan for the group, placing an emphasis on driving expansion through the Life Style retailing division, which has close to 60 outlets in Ireland.

It will soon be announced that Life Style has signed a deal with the Selfridges-owned Arnotts department store in Dublin to replace Elverys as the in-store sports concession.

It will open a 6,000sq ft store in time for the Christmas shopping period, which will operate as a flagship for the group, in addition to its store on Dublin’s Grafton Street.

The Stafford family is also eyeing up growth in the European and British markets. Life Style already operates in Northern Ireland. The group is conscious, however, that if its partnership with Arnotts proves successful, it could provide it with a future route into England through Selfridges.

Life Style is also holding talks with major brands such as Adidas and Nike to gauge their interest in supporting an expansion of the store network into major European cities such as, for example, Copenhagen or Paris.

Life Style believes it has locked down the premium end of the sports retailing market in its home market, with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct-owned businesses the major discount player.

Life Style believes it could succeed with a premium model in Europe, providing it can get exclusivity from the big brands on certain product lines. It is understood that the plans to expand abroad are serious, but not imminent.