New Site for Littlewoods

Littlewoods is to launch an online sportswear business as part of its strategy to grow home shopping through niche product ranges.The new site, to be called Sport-e.com, is to be launched this summer, although the company has not yet announced a date.Jessica Brown and Robert Carruthers report that the company has stated the site would focus on leading brads such as Adidas, Nike and Reebok to be followed by other niche sites with different product ranges.

A spokeswoman for Littlewoods confirmed: "Internet sales are big business for us - we are now in the top five non-food retailers. We are expecting great things from this." At present, Littlewoods has it all-inclusive and Extra catalogues online.The move to exploit the internet is pat of a strategy review at Littlewoods on the retails side. Rose Foster will join the company as chief executive from Monsoon, where she is currently the managing director.Littlewoods' owners the Barclay brothers are currently waiting for clearance from competition authorities before the GBP 590 m deal to buy GUS' home-shopping division can go through.