Chief executive of JJB Sports is found hanged at beauty spot

The chief executive of the UK's biggest sportswear retailer, JJB Sports, has been found hanged at a remote beauty spot near his £3m mansion in Lancashire.

Duncan Sharpe, who had four children and was the son-in-law of the company's flamboyant founder and chairman Dave Whelan, had been due to present JJB's interim results to the City tomorrow. The announcement was due after a rocky three months which has seen the company's market value slump by a third.

Mr Sharpe, 43, was found at 1.15pm on Monday hanging from a tree at Bolton-by-Bowland in the Ribble Valley near Clitheroe, Lancashire.

Mr Whelan indicated that Mr Sharpe, who was married to his daughter Jayne, had become depressed after developing a serious stomach condition. He had attended a consultation with his surgeon on Friday. "We still don't know what has happened.

"He obviously couldn't take it any more and he seems to have just snapped," said Mr Whelan. "His illness had been a great depression for him. I will miss him terribly, he was a good son and a friend.''

Mr Sharpe, a former golf professional whose 19-year career at JJB saw him graduate to the chief executive's post last year, had three sons, aged five, 11 and 14, and a 16-year-old daughter, Laura. Her recent decision to seek a place at Harvard Business School and follow him into business had delighted him, friends said.

His passions remained golf – he played off a single figure handicap at Clitheroe Golf Club – and the five-year renovation of his 13th century home, Old Waddington Hall.

Mr Sharpe enjoyed flying colleagues from the JJB offices in Wigan by helicopter to the hall, which locals say sheltered Henry VI as he fled Yorkist forces during the War of the Roses. He was was also vice-chairman of Wigan Athletic Football Club, which Mr Whelan also owns, and a close friend of the former Manchester United captain Steve Bruce, who managed Wigan for two months last year.

JJB had been suffering commercial turbulence for some time. It issued a profits warning in July, three months after the company purchased the discount retailer TJ Hughes for £42m – a move about which the City was dubious – and as it became clear that the World Cup had failed to deliver strong sales of replica kits.

The share price, which had plunged from a 12-month high of 456p, closed at 136p, down 2.5p on the day. Analysts in the City expressed their sadness at Mr Sharpe's death and said the group would still be in good hands under Mr Whelan's leadership.