JD Sports given boost by trainer sales and in-store shopping

The sportswear retailer saw like-for-like sales growth of 3.8% for the 53 weeks to 3 February 2024, while profit before tax and adjusted items dropped by 8% to £917m.

Profits are in line with the profit warning issued by the retailer in January this year, which reduced its full-year profit before tax expectation to a range of £915m to £935m, down from the previous guidance of £1.04bn.

JD Sports has maintained its profit guidance for the current year of £955m to £1,035m.

Footwear sales boosted JD’s performance, with the category growing by 8.2% during the period, while apparel sales dropped 4.3% due to the mild start to autumn and winter. 

Revenue made in stores grew by 8.9% but online suffered, dropping by 7.6% to £2,350.3m. 

JD Sports chief executive Régis Schultz said: “In the period, we again outperformed the market, delivering organic sales growth of 9% and premium sports fashion organic sales growth of 11%. This strong revenue performance was delivered in a challenging market, particularly through our peak trading period.

“We made important strategic progress: putting the JD brand first through opening over 200 new JD stores; strengthening our complementary concepts through the proposed acquisitions of Courir and, announced after the period end, Hibbett; simplifying the group by taking full control of ISRG and MIG and divesting non-strategic businesses; building the right governance and organisation for a global group of our size; and investing in our people and infrastructure to deliver our growth strategy.

“I would like to take the opportunity to thank our people throughout the business for their hard work in delivering another year of market outperformance.

“We have started the new financial year with Q1 in line with our expectations in a volatile market and we are on track to deliver our profit guidance for the full year.

“Looking further ahead, we have a strong business model and a clear strategy to deliver long-term growth and value creation for our shareholders.”