//JD Sports has made a £5.5m exit deal with former boss Peter Cowgill who stepped down with immediate effect in May
// The sporting retailer also struck a three-year consultancy agreement with Cowgill that will pay him £2 million
JD Sports has made a £5.5 million deal with former boss Peter Cowgill after he made his departure from the sportswear retailer in May.
Cowgill has also agreed to stay on as a consultant for three years to support new chair Andy Higginson and new CEO Régis Schultz, for which he will be paid £2 million.
The additional £3.5 million has been paid for Cowgill to agree for a two-year restrictive covenants, which replace the “very limited provisions” in his original contract, that prevent him from working for or advising any of JD’s competitors, and prevent him from soliciting any of its employees.
Higginson said he was pleased that the business had reached an “amicable and constructive” way forward with Cowgill.
He added: “Peter has hugely valuable experience built over 18 years which we do not want to lose and both Régis and I are delighted to be able to benefit from his considerable talent and advice.
“This caps off what, by any measure, has been a remarkable period of executive leadership by Peter who has been such a core part of the business’s incredible success story to date.
“We are pleased to have settled the terms of his departure and more importantly, to have secured a seamless handover and access to his decades of experience, whilst best protecting our commercial interests.”
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After decades at the helm of the London-listed sporting giant, Cowgill stepped down in with immediate effect in May after several brushes with the Competition and Markets Authority.
Back in February, he hit the headlines after the CMA hit JD Sports with a fine £4.3m following a secret meeting with Footasylum CEO, and former JD chief executive, Barry Bown.
The CMA was investigating JD’s potential acquisition of Footasylum at the time and said the clandestine meeting in a car park, where commercially sensitive information was shared, breached its rules.
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