JD Sports reports strong Christmas trading

Clothing chain JD Sports has announced a growth of over 5% over the last year, which includes what they call “a consistently positive like for like performance” in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Despite some of the challenges that other high street retailers faced towards the end of 2019, JD said it was confident that of a pre-tax profit of around £325-352m. 2019 was a difficult Christmas for many British retailers, as household incomes and the uncertain economic future affected profits.

JD Sports, however, opened stores in Thailand and the US, expanding their business overseas. During the second half of 2018, the sportswear brand opened two stores in Asia, whilst their acquisition of American retail chain Finish Line for $558 million meant that they opened five stores across the Atlantic. JD claim it’s “too early to draw any conclusions” from how its US endeavour has gone, but their plan to convert fifteen more Finish Line stores in the first half of 2019 certainly suggests a positive result.

“Given the well-publicised challenges within the wider UK retail market, we are pleased with this trading result,” the company said, while Peter Cowgill, JD Sports’ executive chairman, said he was “pleased with the continued progress of the group both in terms of performance in existing markets and the recent positive developments in the United States.”

JD Sports has slowly been growing over the last few years. In 2016, the company acquired Go Outdoors for £112m, and in 2017, JD saw a 30% rise in sales.