British company JD Sports Fashion announced Dec. 14 that it acquired Morgan Hill-based Shoe Palace for $325 million.
Shoe Palace was established in 1993 by the Mersho family and currently has 167 stores, the vast majority of which trade under the Shoe Palace banner. More than half of the stores are located in California, with others in Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Hawaii. Shoe Palace is operated by four brothers from the Mersho family, who head up the various operating functions across the business.
According to JD Sports, Shoe Palace generated $435 million in revenue in 2019.
Shoe Palace is currently constructing a 503,400-square-foot warehouse, office and distribution facility at 745 Jarvis Drive adjacent to Highway 101, next to the company’s current headquarters.
JD Sports was founded in 1981 in Great Manchester.
”We are delighted to have completed the acquisition of Shoe Palace,” said Peter Cowgill, executive chairman of JD Sports. “The Shoe Palace team are ambitious, have great energy and pride themselves on their consumer connection and we welcome them to the group. We are confident that our combined fascias will provide us with the flexibility and expertise to fulfill our mutual ambition of becoming a prime customer destination for sneakers and lifestyle apparel in the United States.”
The Mersho Brothers will continue to manage the Shoe Palace business.
“We could not imagine a better way to continue to build on the legacy of our family business,” said George Mersho, CEO of Shoe Palace. “Through this combination with JD and Finish Line in the U.S., we have gained a strong global partner. We look forward to being part of the JD family and continuing to serve our customers and communities for many years to come.”
