Britain's biggest sporting goods retailer Sports Direct posted a 21% rise in profit today but said it would cut its bonus scheme earnings target for 2016 after failing to make the acquisitions necessary to boost sales.
The group is founded and majority controlled by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.
It said underlying pretax profit for the year to April 26 was £300m, ahead of forecasts of £293m and up from £249m a year ago.
A 5.5% rise in sport retail sales helped push total revenue up 4.7%, with the group's gross margin up 110 basis points to 43.8%.
Sports Direct's permanent staff are incentivised by lucrative share bonus schemes linked to group earnings targets.
The company said today it would revise down its 2015/16 adjusted core earnings target of £480m to £420m, as it now considered it to be unreasonably challenging after failing to fuel its expansion with acquisitions over the past year.
All other targets for the further three years of the scheme to 2019 remained unchanged.
