Ashley later told reporters he was sorry for what had happened.
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“Obviously, [criticism in the press] hurts me personally”, Ashley said, adding: “In the end, if I keeping failing. maybe it will be best that I go”. I didn’t knowingly do it badly, I certainly didn’t deliberately do it badly.
Turner enraged Ashley by saying he should offer more guaranteed hours to staff.
When asked to empty his pockets into an airport-style security tray, he pulled out the wads of £50 notes.
Shares in Sports Direct were down 11 percent at 312 pence by 0800 GMT, a 60 percent drop in the price in the previous year.
On top of that, he has taken visitors on a tour of the company’s main United Kingdom distribution centre at Shirebrook, Derbyshire, which has been at the centre of accusations of poor working practices that led the MPs to compare it with a Victorian workhouse and which was at the centre of a report published on Tuesday by the law firm RPC for the board, much of which was highly critical.
The group will now offer its directly employed, casual retail staff the option of either a zero-hours contract or a permanent contract with a “guaranteed number of minimum hours”.
“It has gone a long way but not far enough”.
“We believe that a full and independent review of governance at the company is required, along with a commitment to publish and act on the review’s conclusions and recommendations in the next twelve months”, Euan Stirling of Standard Life, which owns 5.8 percent of Sports Direct’s equity, told the meeting.
That isn’t going to happen because Mr Hellawell retains the support of Mr Ashley, Sports Direct’s controlling shareholder. Shareholder Royal London said his position was untenable.
Following the AGM, investors and journalists were taken on a tour of the Shirebrook site.
“As previously disclosed, our property team will continue to be led by Michael Murray and his remuneration will be decided at the board’s discretion”, it said in a presentation released ahead of the meeting.
“I will help this company improve and will be judged on my performance very clearly by the investors at the next AGM”.
But the charm offensive on display at this year’s annual general meeting was an attempt to recast himself, and Sports Direct, in an age when the negative publicity that accompanies criticism of a firm’s labour practices can hammer its bottom line, as well as its reputation.
The profit warning spooked investors, who were unable to find any solace in founder and majority owner Mike Ashley confirming that he was not planning on taking the company private any time soon.
The retailer also warned that annual earnings would plunge to £300 million – compared to last year’s £381.4 million – after what has been a controversial year for the company.
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The union said that at that rate it would take 28 years to affect the entire workforce.
