We haven’t seen the last of back seat driver Ashley

SO FAREWELL then, Michael James Wallace Ashley. Or is it just au revoir?

According to a report in today’s Daily Telegraph, Mike (as he is more commonly known) Ashley is about to hand over day-to-day running of his Frasers Group retail empire to his eldest daughter’s fiancé Michael

Murray.

Typically Frasers’ only stock market announcement today is about something completely different. It is boasting about how it has been praised by an industrial tribunal for sending vulnerable workers or those aged over 60 home early in the pandemic with “most” on full pay. Perhaps Ashley, who turns 57 next month, is feeling his own mortality creeping up on him.

There’s always tomorrow’s trading update to release details of management succession. That is expected to show a considerable improvement in sales, particularly at Sports Direct since the full lockdown ended.

It might also give us some sign of how Ashley’s prospective son-in-law has been performing. Murray currently enjoys the somewhat grandiose title of

“head of elevation” at Frasers Group.

I have no idea what that means although it is apparently his task to modernise the retail empire and give it a more upmarket image. Hopefully that will not mean the end of either those handy large carrier bags or chunky pint mugs emblazoned with the Sports Direct logo. A genteel Frasers tote bag or porcelain coffee cup wouldn’t seem right.

The truth is that Frasers and all it comprises is Ashley. Like most entrepreneurs the business that Mike built is unlikely to thrive without him in the driving seat. That’s why the shares which have enjoyed a huge rise in the last year have fallen today. But we almost certainly haven’t seen the last of Ashley, even if for the time being he plans to drive the business from the back seat.