Mike Ashley's right hand man warns over House of Fraser job cuts

The group, 64% owned by Ashley, posted a 6.9% rise in revenues to £3.9 billion in the year to April 26. A national fervour for fitness in lockdown boosted its brands from Sports Direct to Evans Cycles.

Wootton said: “The stores have successfully reopened after lockdown and have continued their strong performance. Everybody is walking, biking and running. I can’t look out of my window without seeing someone running every day. Everybody has taken on board the fact that being fit is good for you.” However, profits fell in part due to the closure of its shops from March 23 to June 14.

Trading has been “strong” since reopening and a spike in online sales while stores were closed spurred a £100 million investment in its digital arm, notably in upmarket fashion brand Flannels.

The group posted a 5% rise in underlying profit to £302 million and said it is confident it can improve this by 10% to 30% this year, sending the shares up 35p or 11% to 361p.

Wootton repeated calls for politicians to probe last year’s administration of Debenhams, which wiped out Sports Direct’s investment. Debenhams has since gone bust again, and Frasers is rumoured to want 30 of its shops. "As regards the latest situation, it’s a sorry case of we told you so isn’t it? We look on with interest," he said.

It was also this week linked to a takeover of bust gym chain and sports retailer DW Sports. Wootton said: “We get an opportunity over our desk pretty much every day. We look at things with varying degrees of seriousness.”

The controversy-prone retailer, which initially tried to resist closing in lockdown, got into more hot water when chairman David Daly bought about £11,000 worth of shares “in error” two days before today’s results. Daly today called for corporate tax to be raised by 1% to directly support the NHS.