Acquisition of Hobbs Sports in Cambridge

Jarrold has acquired the HOBBS SPORTS shop in Cambridge City Centre. This is Cambridge’s equivalent of the Pilch Sports shop in Norwich – an independent sports shop within the Intersport buying group. The shop is smaller than the Pilch store, but it is in a good location in Cambridge city centre and is well known as a specialist sports shop.

The previous owner has retired from the business, but Jarrold has taken over the store team, led by Clive Edson, the Store Manager.

The store will be refitted later this year to modernise its appearance. In the meantime, the very competitive pricing that has worked well in Pilch and a transactional website for the store will be introduced.

Jarrold Retail Trading Manager, Tim Shattock, will lead this expansion of the retail business.

This acquisition demonstrates Jarrold’s ambition to grow its sports retail business in East Anglia and Cambridge has been the first choice for this expansion.

Hobbs Sports traces its origins back to a sports shop opened in Fleet Street, London in 1926 by Sir Jack Hobbs, perhaps England’s most famous cricketer. Sir Jack’s younger brother Sidney, ran the shop, until returning to Cambridge to open his own store. In 2006 the business took over Cambridge’s other famous sports store, Grays Sports (founded in 1855 by Harry Gray, the World Champion Rackets’ player) and since then the business has traded from its current location on Sidney Street.