{"id":165974,"date":"2020-03-27T08:31:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T08:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/mike-ashley-apologises-for-response-to-covid-19-crisis\/"},"modified":"2021-08-06T12:05:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T12:05:13","slug":"mike-ashley-apologises-for-response-to-covid-19-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/mike-ashley-apologises-for-response-to-covid-19-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Ashley apologises for response to COVID-19 crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sports Direct founder and Frasers Group CEO Mike Ashley has apologised for \u201cill-judged and poorly timed\u201d <strong>emails to the Government and poor communication with employees and the public<\/strong> in the face of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In an open letter, the majority owner of Frasers Group also said he <strong>has offered the company\u2019s \u201centire fleet of lorries\u201d to the NHS<\/strong> to help deliver medical supplies and equipment.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after the businessman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/boris-johnson-warns-mike-ashley-to-expect-the-consequences-if-sports-direct-flouts-rules\/\">faced fierce criticism from MPs<\/a> after he<strong> tried to claim Sports Direct was an essential operator<\/strong> for keeping the nation fit, before performing a U-turn and closing his stores. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson even told Ashley to \"expect the consequences\" if he flouted lock-down rules.<\/p>\n<p>Frasers Group \u2013 which rebranded from Sports Direct International last year \u2013 faced further scorn after its finance chief <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/mike-ashleys-frasers-group-offers-to-deliver-nhs-supplies\/\">wrote a letter to Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove<\/a> on Wednesday in an attempt to defend its position.<\/p>\n<p>In the new letter (full text below) Ashley said: \u201cOur intentions were <strong>only to seek clarity from the Government<\/strong> as to whether we should keep some of our stores open; we would never have acted against their advice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn hindsight, <strong>our emails to the Government were ill-judged and poorly timed,<\/strong> when they clearly had much greater pressures than ours to deal with.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn top of this, <strong>our communications to our employees and the public on this was poor.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo reiterate, I am deeply apologetic about the misunderstandings of the last few days. We will learn from this and will try not to make the same mistakes in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><strong><span class=\"w\">In full: Open Letter from Mike Ashley<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><span class=\"t\">Given what has taken place over the last few days, I thought it was necessary to address and apologise\u00a0for much of what has been reported across various media outlets regarding my personal actions and those of the Frasers Group business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><span class=\"t\">Our intentions were only to seek clarity from the Government as to whether we should keep some of our stores open; we would never have acted against their advice. In hindsight, our emails to the Government were ill-judged and poorly timed, when they clearly had much greater pressures than ours to deal with. On top of this, our communications to our employees and the public on this was poor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><span class=\"t\">There has been no dress rehearsal for what we as a nation are currently tackling, and I for one am immensely proud of how our Government, our NHS &amp; all of our key workers have handled the situation so far.\u00a0I would especially like to thank my Frasers Group employees, who have stood by the business in difficult times before and are doing so again currently.\u00a0We are working very hard to save our business, so that we can continue to be one of the biggest employers on the UK high street\u00a0once\u00a0this\u00a0pandemic has passed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><span class=\"t\">Outside of Frasers Group, I\u00a0have offered our support to the NHS and we are poised and ready for when that offer is accepted, with our entire fleet of lorries at their disposal - to help deliver medical equipment\u00a0and supplies.\u00a0 This offer is not limited to the NHS but all key workforces across the Government. We will help wherever possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><span class=\"t\">Finally, to reiterate, I am deeply apologetic about the misunderstandings of the last few days. We will learn from this and will try not to make the same mistakes in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><span class=\"t\">I strongly\u00a0encourage everyone to follow the Government's advice, stay safe and healthy through these challenging times, not least my employees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><span class=\"t\">Kind Regards,<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><strong><span class=\"t\">Mike Ashley<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"z\"><strong><span class=\"t\">CEO Frasers Group\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":134345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16042,6,10494],"tags":[5202,5707,15588,11421,19402],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mike Ashley apologises for response to COVID-19 crisis - TheIndustry.fashion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sports Direct founder and Frasers Group CEO Mike Ashley has apologised for \u201cill-judged and poorly timed\u201d emails to the Government and poor communication\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/mike-ashley-apologises-for-response-to-covid-19-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mike Ashley apologises for response to COVID-19 crisis - TheIndustry.fashion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sports Direct founder and Frasers Group CEO Mike Ashley has apologised for \u201cill-judged and poorly timed\u201d emails to the Government and poor communication\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/mike-ashley-apologises-for-response-to-covid-19-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TheIndustry.fashion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theindustryfashion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-27T08:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-06T12:05:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/embedded228563863-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1724\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauretta Roberts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@theindustryfash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@theindustryfash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lauretta Roberts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/mike-ashley-apologises-for-response-to-covid-19-crisis\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/mike-ashley-apologises-for-response-to-covid-19-crisis\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lauretta Roberts\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/person\/85b04a16eba8c6cd7a9534c5a4262b89\"},\"headline\":\"Mike Ashley apologises for response to COVID-19 crisis\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-27T08:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-06T12:05:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/mike-ashley-apologises-for-response-to-covid-19-crisis\/\"},\"wordCount\":606,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Coronavirus\",\"Covid-19\",\"Frasers Group\",\"Mike Ashley\",\"Sports International\"],\"articleSection\":{\"0\":\"COVID-19\",\"2\":\"News &amp; 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