120 staff affected in closure of Sheffield’s Go Outdoors head office

The Sheffield-based head office of a firm that sells outdoor clothing and camping equipment is to close, it has been confirmed.
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The Go Outdoors HQ – at Cuthbert House on Arley Street on the edge of the city centre – will shut at the end of February.

More than 100 affected staff are being given the option to transfer to Bury in Greater Manchester, where head office services will be based alongside the rest of the JD Sports Group, which bought Go Outdoors in 2016 and also owns Blacks, a retailer with a very similar offering.

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A spokesman for JD said: “The group recently carried out a comprehensive consultation process to explore potential synergies between Blacks Outdoor Retail Limited and Go Outdoors Limited.

The Go Outdoors office on Arley Street, Sheffield. Picture: GoogleThe Go Outdoors office on Arley Street, Sheffield. Picture: Google
The Go Outdoors office on Arley Street, Sheffield. Picture: Google

“After careful consideration of all available options, we can confirm that the Go Outdoors Head Office functions will be migrating to the Group’s Head Office site in Bury at the end of February 2020.

“The office will remain open throughout this period and affected colleagues have until the end of February to decide if they would like to transfer their roles to the Bury office. A number of colleagues have already stated their intention to do so.

“The recently refurbished Go Outdoors store and customer services team in Sheffield are not affected by these changes.”

There are around 120 staff in the Sheffield head office.

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Go Outdoors has 65 stores nationally, and in April it launched a 353,000 sq ft distribution centre in Middlewich, Cheshire.

The chain is rolling out a new format for its high street shops, and has also begun refitting its bigger outlets, starting with those in Wigan and Stockport.

JD Sports purchased Go Outdoors for £112.3 million from its former private equity owners YFM Equity Partners and 3i Group. The Competition and Markets Authority cleared the deal in 2017.

Go Outdoors started as Sheffield's Camping and Caravanning Centre in 1969.

John Graham and Paul Caplan bought CCC in 1998. YFM backed the management buyout, and 3i invested £28 million in the company in 2011.