Brits are buying more football shirts and fewer trainers – and it cost JD Sports £50 million
Key Points
- JD Sports cut its full-year profit forecast to £700 million to £800 million, down £50 million at both ends of the range.
- Group sales fell 1.3% in the 13 weeks to 1 August, with trainers weak in every region and clothing and accessories strong.
- UK sales were broadly flat, propped up by football replica kit, with like-for-like sales up 0.8% - the group's only positive figure of its kind.
- North America fell 4.5%, hit by weak consumer sentiment and back-to-school spending shifting from July into August.
- JD cut prices to stay competitive and warned the discounting may continue into the second half of the year.
JD Sports cut its profit forecast for the year by £50 million on Thursday (20 August) after shoppers across its biggest markets kept buying clothing and kit while leaving trainers on the shelves.
The retailer now expects profit of between £700 million and £800 million for the financial year to January 2027, down from the £750 million to £800 million range it gave in May.
Group sales fell 1.3% in the 13 weeks to 1 August to £3.09 billion, a sharper drop than the 0.1% decline in the previous quarter. JD blamed a heavily discounted market, cost-of-living pressure on its core customers including higher fuel prices, and a slower run of high-demand trainer launches.
The UK was the strongest of JD’s three big regions. Sales were broadly flat at £804 million, and stores and websites that have been trading for more than a year took 0.8% more than they did last year – the only positive figure of its kind in the group. Football replica kit did the heavy lifting, alongside growth in accessories, women’s ranges and JD’s own labels. Its Go Outdoors business also improved.
Trainers went the other way in every region JD operates in. The retailer pointed to older product lines reaching the end of their cycle, and a quieter quarter for the limited-run releases that normally drive queues and resale interest. Running shoes and newer styles sold well enough to offset some of that, but not all of it.
North America took the worst of it, with sales down 4.5% to £1.07 billion.
JD said American shoppers pushed their back-to-school spending out of July and into the first half of August, and that sentiment among its core customers weakened. Europe fell 0.4% to £1.06 billion. Asia Pacific, the smallest region at 5% of sales, grew 10.2%.
Discounting may last into Christmas
JD cut prices during the first half to keep pace with rivals, and told investors the promotional market may persist into the second half of the year – the period that covers Christmas.
The company described the price cuts as controlled and said higher marketing contributions from brands offset some of the cost. Online sales grew 2.6% over the quarter, helped by clothing ranges and by more orders being packed and sent from shops rather than warehouses.
“Trading in the second quarter remained tough,” said Régis Schultz, Chief Executive of JD Sports Fashion.
“The market stayed highly promotional, reflecting the consumer and footwear product cycle headwinds our industry has faced in recent quarters, whilst our core consumer was impacted by incremental cost-of-living pressures.”
Footfall in JD’s shops was generally lower than a year ago outside of key trading events, though a higher share of the people who did walk in bought something. The group runs 4,766 stores across 35 countries under fascias including JD, Size?, Courir, Sprinter and Go Outdoors.
JD reports its half-year results on 23 September.
