“Sports Direct has invested in excess of RM200 million in Malaysia since its inception here some eight years ago,” said Gibbons “and currently has 28 stores with a plan to continue growing for certain strategic and geographical locations”.

The company is targeting to achieve RM200 million for the financial year ending April 2018, having recorded RM157 million in sales last year in the domestic market.

The company is hoping to achieve an annual revenue growth of at least 10 per cent per annum.

In the next five years, Sports Direct aims to have a retail presence in each of the leading Southeast Asian markets, either directly or with joint venture partners.

The Sports Direct proprietary website is due to be launched this month and it will continue to develop a marketplace shop-in-shop platform with Lazada.

While the e-commerce expansion is taking on a major focus, it is seen to compliment its retail store business, not compete against it.

“One thing about the sports business is people still need to go out and try on shoes, sports attire plus compare the latest technologies,” said Gibbons.

He said InvestKL, the government entity set up under the Economic Transformation Programme, to attract large global multinational companies (MNCs), has contributed to the company’s development in Malaysia.

“We are carefully setting the foundations for expanded growth and to meet our parent company’s aspirations to become a dominant player within the region. I think we have made good progress until today, ensuring that we create the correct disciplines within our business and InvestKL is helping us to achieve our aspirations.”

“InvestKL looks internally at our business to have a better understanding of how they can help. They open doors, facilitate meetings and help us to promote ourselves domestically and in the region by tapping other agencies and giving us a slightly different perspective on what support is available and how it can help us grow. This has been very helpful,” said Gibbons.

Sports Direct International Plc is the UK’s largest sporting goods retailer by revenue, and operates a diversified portfolio of sports, fitness, fashion and lifestyle fascias and brands.

In the 2017 financial year, group revenue hit £3.2 billion (RM17.6 billion), operating 757 sports stores across the UK and internationally, plus Premium Lifestyle stores in the UK.

The company operates a wide portfolio of globally recognised sports, fashion and lifestyle brands, including Slazenger, Everlast, Lonsdale, Karrimor, Kangol, No Fear and Firetrap.

“Our strategy is to invest in people and key third-party brand partners to attain new levels of excellence across multi-brands and multi-sport offerings to customers.

We aspire to be a leading sports and lifestyle retailer internationally and to deliver sustainable growth for our shareholders in the medium to long-term by offering customers an unrivalled range of high-quality leading brands”.

The group provides a full multichannel retail approach across its fascias in the UK, and increasingly across its fascias in continental Europe and elsewhere.

The group also wholesales and licenses its group brands to partners in the UK, continental Europe, the United States, and the Far East.