Blacks Leisure Group

Blacks Outdoor Retail Ltd.

Type	Private (Subsidiary)
Industry	Outdoors and Camping
Founded	1861 (Greenock)
Headquarters	Bury, United Kingdom
Area served	UK
Key people	CEO Lee Bagnall
Products	Outdoor, camping, walking, skiing and mountaineering equipment
Number of employees	3,500
Parent	JD Sports Fashion plc
Website	www.blacks.co.uk www.millets.co.uk

Blacks Outdoor Retail Ltd. is a British retailer, headquartered in Bury, Greater Manchester, England which owns the British outdoor retailers Blacks, JD Sports and Millets. Blacks is the largest outdoor retailer in the UK with stores nationwide.

The company entered administration in 2012 and is now owned by its sister company JD Sports. Since the acquisition by JD Sports, Blacks head offices have been relocated to JD's head offices in Bury.

In 1931, Blacks of Greenock published the first Good Companions catalogue. In the Second World War, Blacks made tents for the Army and Navy and made fenders for boats on D-Day. During the early part of the war, the workshops in Greenock were destroyed by a parachute mine on 8 May 1941.

A Canadian subsidiary opened in 1958. Throughout the 1960s, it bought smaller companies. Then in 1967, it bought Benjamin Edginton Ltd, a tent maker. In 1984, it joined with Greenfields plc, then became the Black Leisure Group plc in 1985. In 1994, Blacks Camping became Blacks Outdoors.

The Blacks Leisure Group was formed in 1985, which is now defunct as a company. It has doggedly survived financial difficulties in 1986 and 2009. In September 1986 the company and its 280 employees and 44 stores, almost went into receivership. A £3.3 million offer came from the Sears Group who owned Millets, but this transaction was not completed. It received a cash injection from investors to keep it afloat the following month. It bought Miss Sam Holdings, a childrenswear company, in July 1987 for £45 million. At this time it was headed by Bernard Garbacz. In 1989 it moved its operations to Washington.

It bought the Outdoor Group, which included Millets and Free Spirit, in November 1999 for £51 million, having first offered £55 million. At the time Blacks had 42 stores and a 40% share in the Fila UK Ltd sportswear firm; it sold this share to the parent company in July 2000 for £12 million. In May 2002 it sold its sports division, 187 First Sport outlets, to JD Sports for £53.2 million and bought 47 outlets of Famous Army Stores in February 2002. In July 2003 it bought the Just Add Water chain of 10 shops for £4.3 million. On November 2004 it bought 27 Outdoor outlets for £2.6 million from The Scout Association. Until 2006, it engaged in an expansion of its business by opening many new stores, especially on retail parks. This expansion was short-lived.