Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct has bought struggling Salcombe fashion chain Jack Wills out of administration.

The fashion brand was established in the town in 1999 and became known for its signature “preppy” style.

Mr Ashley’s company beat off competition from the Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group to buy the firm for £12.75m on Monday, July 5.

It will acquire 100 Jack Wills stores in the UK and Ireland and take on 1,700 staff as part of the deal.

Many are in expensive university and market towns such as Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Exeter and Cheltenham.

Commenting on the deal, Sports Direct told the BBC: "We will look to work with the landlords to reduce the rents to keep as many stores trading as possible."

The company has 10 stores overseas and KPMG, which is the administrator to Jack Wills, is examining options for those assets.

Suzanne Harlow, chief executive of Jack Wills, said that while the company has worked on improving its financial performance: "The challenging trading environment led us to conclude that the company’s long-term future would be best served as part of a larger group and Sports Direct will enable us to do this."

Jack Wills reported an operating loss of £14.2m for the year to 28 January 2018, the most recent results available.

Retail analyst and consultant Richard Hyman said: “This is the toughest retail environment we’ve ever seen.

“Fifteen years ago, there was no online retailing, and this year online shopping is set to pass the 30% mark of shopping as a whole.”

“Jack Wills is in an industry that is being challenged.”

However, Richard thinks that part of the fashion giant’s downfall was its signature style.

He continued: “Jack Wills is a one-trick pony.

“The look they sell is very stylised.

“The strength of this is that when the look is fashionable, it does very well, but when it isn’t, you’re stuck.

“We saw this when their attempt at branching out with their mature sister label ‘Aubin & Wills’ failed.

“About eight years ago their look was very popular with adolescents, but those adolescents are older now and have moved on.

“Additionally, their younger siblings want to be individual and don’t want to dress like their older brothers or sisters did.

“These brands are prisoners of their own fashion.

“Lots of fashion labels are less stylised and have more wiggle room, but brands like Monsoon and Jack Wills are in trouble.

“Nothing is fashionable forever.”