Liquidators of one of Scotland's leading outdoor sportswear retailers are hopeful of saving the company and 91 jobs after receiving two offers to buy what is left of the business.
It is understood that one of the suitors of Nevisport is Sports Direct, run by billionaire retail entrepreneur and Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, who put in an offer in time for the closing date of Monday evening.
Those involved in the sale of six remaining Nevisport stores confirmed that Sports Direct had an interest in the purchase prior to the retailer going into liquidation.
The Nevisport outlets would provide a market for Sports Direct's brand which includes Karrimor outdoor clothing and accessories.
Mr Ashley has previously snapped up independent brands such as Gilesports and Hargreaves and in July Sports Direct added a 60% stake in English outdoor clothing chain Field & Trek.
His sportswear empire, which has annual sales of more than £1bn, sells heavily discounted third-party brands such as Adidas and Puma while selling his own labels, including Slazenger and Donnay, at far higher profit margins.
It was announced on Monday that Nevisport had gone into liquidation three months after announcing it had suffered a third successive year of losses.The company posted a pre-tax loss of £125,000 for the year ended February 26, 2006, compared with a deficit of £189,000 in the previous 12 months.
Nevisport saw five of its stores close last week leaving stores remaining in Aberdeen, Aonach Mor, Aviemore, Edinburgh, Fort William, Middlesbrough and York.
It changed hands nearly three years ago when founders Ian Sutherland and Ian Sykes sold out to a three-strong management team led by Bruce Cameron.
Blair Nimmo, of KPMG, the joint provisional liquidators, said: "At closing date we had two offers for the business and we are currently evaluating and clarifying the terms of these offers.
"We are reasonably hopeful that we can achieve a sale, but with the nature of this they are all leasehold shops and the stock is complicated by various claims to ownership. It is not going to be as straightforward as we would like."
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