It’s easy to forget but, as privately owned specialists bid for pre-eminence in the outdoor goods market, a public company holds the commanding heights.
That’s Blacks Leisure, on top with a 22% market share. The problem is that often in the last decade it has looked more like retail’s equivalent of Eddie the Eagle than Sir Edmund Hillary when it comes to turning shoppers’ love of the great outdoors into profits.
Blacks’ share price leaped on Tuesday when it emerged that it had, once again, attracted the interest of potential buyers and has hired McQueen to advise.
Throughout this year outdoors retailers have been hot property. Serial dealmaker John Lovering joined Go Outdoors as chairman to help it grow and Mountain Warehouse was sold for £50m - both examples of the opportunity many see.
Meanwhile, Blacks’ share price has been as low as 26p and as high as 71.5p, as its punishing climb away from the precipice of business collapse continued, dogged by frequent slips back.
Three years ago next month Neil Gillis was parachuted into Blacks to guide it to recovery. Along the way there have been store closures, a CVA and fundraising but conditions remained difficult at the last update.
While Gillis has his critics, recession made his job far harder than it would have otherwise been. And almost throughout his tenure there has been someone circling Blacks, keen either to pick up a bargain or convinced that they could do a better job.
The renewed acquisition interest is a reminder that Blacks, while it has dangled precariously, hung on by its fingertips and remains market leader with further potential.
Having been through the mill, investors face a familiar question if an offer is made. Is a quoted Blacks a Hillary likely to claim more summits in future, or an Eddie not worth betting on?
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