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Plane crazy - Hard-pressed Sports Direct staff can hire new corporate jet

Last updated: 11:59 08 Dec 2016 GMT, First published: 10:39 08 Dec 2016 GMT

Corporate jet
The firm said the airplane and its helicopter can “be chartered at open market rates by third parties or staff"

Hard-pressed staff at Sports Direct PLC (LON:SPD) will have the chance to hire the retailer’s new corporate plane to jet away from the stress of working for the controversial company.

Tucked away in a few pars at the bottom of the FTSE 250-listed firm’s dismal interims today, Sports Direct revealed it will be taking delivery of a corporate plane in the coming weeks.

The firm said the purchase will “ facilitate efficiencies relating to the use of management time and the pursuit of the group's strategic priorities.”

READ: Sports Direct profits slump

Sports Direct said the plane is being acquired at a total cost of US$51.1mln (£40.4mln), and joins the company helicopter and a fleet of corporate vehicles used to transport employees and business partners to the group’s sites across the UK.

The firm added that the plane and the helicopter can “be chartered at open market rates by third parties or staff in a personal capacity if they are not being used by the group.”.

George Salmon, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The tone of Sports Direct’s first half results is conciliatory to its staff, describing them as its number one priority.

“However, the availability of the group’s new US$50mln corporate plane for staff hire is probably of little interest to the vast majority.”

Sports Direct has been under fire for the past year for the poor treatment of its warehouse staff.

In July, MPs called working conditions at the firm’s Shirebrook facilities "closer to that of a Victorian warehouse than that of a modern retailer."

That led the company to launch an independent review that found "serious shortcomings" in practices at Shirebrook, which it is currently taking steps to tackle.

"Our People, our priority"

Mike Ashley, the group’s billionaire owner who took over as chief executive in September following the departure of long time lieutenant Dave Forsey, said today: “The significant events over the last year have been tough on our people and morale - our people are our number one priority over the long term.”

He added: “What matters most to me is how tough the last year has been for the people who work at Sports Direct.

“Our people have once again found themselves in the spotlight through no fault of their own, yet they remain hardworking and loyal. It is for this reason that my immediate priority will be to protect the people at Sports Direct.”

Part of that, Ashley said, includes a commitment to underwrite the value of the returns on the group’s 2011 Share Scheme, which vest in September 2017, “ to reduce the impact of recent volatility on the financial outcomes for our people."

The boss – also owner of football club Newcastle United - said employees would receive a minimum of £3 for each of the 17mln shares to which, in aggregate, they are entitled, and pledged that if the stock market value fell below that level, the company would make up the difference in cash.

Sports Direct’s share price has more than halved in the last 12 months, and this morning they were down another 8% in early morning trading, down 26.5p to 288.4p.

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