Mike Ashley warns more House of Fraser stores could close

Boss Mike Ashley said that while some stores were not paying rent they were still "unsustainable".

Sports Direct bought House of Fraser out of administration in August last year.

Since then Mr Ashley has secured deals with landlords to keep around half of the 59 stores open, including Wolverhampton’s iconic Beatties and the House of Fraser stores in Birmingham and Telford.

However, the store in Shrewsbury closed in January.

Mr Ashley said that recent sales have held up well during Christmas, but warned: "We are doing as much as we can to realistically save as many jobs and stores as possible however, despite our best efforts, there are still a number of stores which are currently paying zero rent and that are unprofitable and thus not sustainable."

Meanwhile, Sports Direct also said a 674 million euro (£561 million) tax inquiry into unpaid VAT in Belgium is also progressing well and bosses expect a decision on 491 million euro to be made by early next year.

The revelations come as the business, which has snapped up several under-performing high street names in recent years, saw sales jump 14 per cent in the six months to October 27 to £2 billion with pre-tax profits up 160 per cent to £193.4 million.

Mr Ashley used the results as an opportunity to attack his rivals, regulators and politicians over some of the scandals that have unravelled at businesses where Sports Direct had been a shareholder, including Debenhams and Goals Soccer Centre.

He also made a parting shot at outgoing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who focused heavily on attacking Mr Ashley and other rich businessmen throughout the election campaign.

Mr Ashley said: "Mr Corbyn attacked our business during the election campaign, but he really should have checked his facts as he really was shown to be 'clueless'.

"He clearly has zero awareness of the fact we are one of the very few groups, and also one of the first, to have a workers representative as a statutory director of the group."

In terms of sales, it was a strong period for the company, as it focused on its "elevation" strategy of improving stores and winning over big-name brands to be able to sell its most popular products.

Sales in its UK sports retail business, which includes Sports Direct, Jack Wills, Game Digital, Evans Cycles and Sofa.com, rose 6.7 per cent to £1.2 billion, although this growth mainly came from takeovers.

When stripped out, sales fell 8.6 per cent, with bosses saying this was due to "the continuing elevation strategy".

The last six months has been relatively stable for Sports Direct, compared with previous periods.