The old 'footer' pro who gets a kick out of making sport pay

There are few businessmen in Britain who look forward to the new football season with the same relish as David Whelan. As head of JJB Sports, the country's largest sports retailer, he knows his business should rake it in at this time of year. As chairman and owner of Wigan Athletic, his local football team which plays in the Nationwide League second division, he gets his kicks in the directors' box every Saturday afternoon. And as a former professional footballer, who broke his leg playing for Blackburn Rovers in the 1960 FA Cup Final, he still gets an old pro's sense of anticipation at the time of the big kick off.

"Football is the lifeblood of the UK and we all miss it," he says. "Everything seems to come back to life when the season starts. And we [JJB] are very big in football. You name it, we sell it; boots, studs, jerseys. We sell over a million pairs of boots a year."

Mr Whelan is speaking in JJB's modern office on the outskirts of Wigan. "I'm a Wiganer," he says proudly. "My grandfather came here from Ireland in 1903." Mr Whelan, 64, is one of Britain's biggest self-made retailers still running his own show. When Sir Stanley Kalms retires from Dixons next year, Mr Whelan will be the biggest. Compact and neat, he has snow white hair and a pinkish face. He speaks with a broad Lancashire accent and is known to call a spade a spade. He calls football "footer". And he can be brutal as two sacked managers of Wigan Athletic can testify. "If there's one thing I am in business, it's ruthless."

Mr Whelan and his family still own 37 per cent of JJB (worth £370m) but he stepped back to become non-executive chairman earlier this year. However, he is still very hands on, buzzing around the country in the group's helicopter and corporate jet to assess new and existing sites. "I know the City doesn't like these things but we've got over 400 stores now and if we went to them all by train or car it would take forever."

He's a stickler for detail. "It's cheque day on Fridays. I sign every cheque with Duncan Sharpe [JJB's chief executive and Whelan's son-on-law]. When you sign a cheque it teaches you the value of money."

It is the kind of down-to-earth philosophy that has transformed JJB Sports from a small regional player into a 440-store giant with a stock market value of more than £1bn. The plan is to expand in the UK with 35 new superstores a year. Cannily, the business is gaining planning permission by offering to build health clubs and Soccerdomes – big domes housing indoor football pitches – alongside its stores. "Councils all over the country are begging us to build them," he says. The next step is abroad with a store due to open in Rotterdam and another planned for Utrecht.

Ironically for such a devoted Wiganer, Mr Whelan was actually born in Bradford. "My family were all from Wigan but my mum popped over to Bradford for a few days because my dad was an entertainer playing the clubs and I was born there."

His father was a miner and then a cotton spinner and spent six years in the Army during which Whelan only saw him once. "When I saw him next I didn't recognise him." He was a good defensive footballer and turned pro for Blackburn, earning £20 a week. But his career crashed at the age of 22 with the FA Cup Final injury. "It was a disaster," he says. "I just wanted to pay footer."

But even as a relatively well-paid footballer, he had started working on a market stall selling toiletries in Blackburn and Wigan. "The market teaches you the basics of life. One is your top line. The other is your bottom line. Then there are your margins and your overheads. Those four things are what counts on a balance sheet."

Mr Whelan later opened a small shop and expanded Whelan Discount stores into selling groceries, hardware and electrical goods. It was this business he sold to William Morrison.

He had already bought a Wigan sports shop called JJB in 1971 and in the late 1970s started to build it up. He had no idea it would become so big, with profits of £84m last year on sales of £663m. Boosted by the huge marketing spending of Nike, Adidas and Reebok, JJB took off. It floated in 1994, then in 1998 paid £290m for Sports Division which had taken over the ex-Sears business Olympus Sports. The deal transformed JJB's scale, though Mr Whelan admits he overpaid.

An increasing amount of his energies are devoted to promoting Wigan. He has spent £28m building an impressive stadium in which Wigan Athletic and Wigan rugby league teams play (he owns both). This month he bought Orrell, the local rugby union club. He even owns Pooles pies, a local pie-maker.

He does not foresee a Whelan dynasty with his children taking over. "You need your kids and grandchildren to be hungry. It's a bit like football; if they get too much money they can lose their hunger." As it is he has a quasi-dynastic succession in place with Sharpe in place as chief executive. "Had he not been good enough I wouldn't have given him the job. He knows I'll kick him up the arse when necessary."

There are no plans to retire. His medium-term ambition is to drive JJB's sales past £1bn and get Wigan Athletic in the Premiership. On current form, you wouldn't bet against him.