While some 20 interested parties jostled for track position in July at the start of the paper chase to acquire the 57-strong Lifestyle sportswear business, the number was whittled down to six by the final bend. Seeing off the super-fit Marathon Sports, Champion Sports and British company Langdens was a team of former Power Supermarket managers who, benefiting from strict training in paper shuffling, were first across the finishing line, picking up the business in a deal worth over £15 million.

A new-style Lifestyle was announced this week with British supermarket multiple Tesco, which acquired the chain as part of its takeover of the Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices supermarkets, passing the ownership baton to a management team headed by former Power Supermarkets director Andrew Sharkey.

Lifestyle branches, spread throughout the Republic and Northern Ireland, have a turnover of about £40 million and employ around 310 people. The outlets are well known to parents of image-conscious teenagers, who spend hours fingering the merchandise to ensure purchase of exactly the right logo-embossed trainers or sport shirts to enhance peer group street cred. Such sociological need-fulfilment is a distinct benefit to any business. The acquisition team, in its first alternative Lifestyle statement, says it intends to pump over £7 million into the business, opening several new stores building on the current 15 per cent market share. The retail playing pitch for sports goods is fairly crowded, with plenty of small operators in runners and shorts booting the ball around . Although the lads done well, the Lifestyle team will need to hone all its competitive instincts to notch up an acceptable profit result on capital employed.