JD Sports has cut its full-year profit forecast after sales fell during a challenging second quarter, with weakness in North America and footwear weighing on the Bury-headquartered retail giant.
The sportswear retailer now expects profit before tax of between £700m and £800m for the year to January 2027, down from its previous guidance of £750m to £850m.
Group sales fell 1.3% on an organic basis during the second quarter to the end of July, while like-for-like sales were down 3.1%.
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North America proved the most challenging of JD’s key markets, with organic sales falling 4.5% and like-for-like sales down 6.8%.
Footwear remained soft across all regions as consumers continued to face cost-of-living pressures and the market remained highly promotional. JD also pointed to a slower quarter for high-heat footwear products and deferred back-to-school demand in North America.
There was better news for apparel and accessories, which performed well across all regions. The UK delivered a particularly strong quarter for football replica kit sales and was JD’s best-performing region overall, with like-for-like sales up 0.8%.
Asia Pacific also continued to grow, recording a 10.2% increase in organic sales.
Régis Schultz, CEO of JD Sports, said: “Our focus remains on executing against our strategy, and growing our resilience through our increasingly diverse product and omni-channel offer – with growth in apparel and accessories sales, encouraging momentum in performance-based running and newer footwear styles, and online sales up 2.6%. Our store estate is also becoming more productive, with Group space growth contributing +2.1% to sales in H1 despite a lower store count.
“We continue to exercise strong cost and capital discipline across discretionary spend, store operating costs, inventory and capex, while also driving further supply chain efficiencies, including automation at our distribution centre in Europe.”
Schultz faced a move against him from former chairman Andy Higginson earlier this year, but received the backing of JD’s largest shareholder Pentland, with Higginson subsequently departing.
Addressing the downgraded guidance, Schultz said: “Our guidance reflects a pragmatic view of external market conditions, whilst our cost and capital discipline, coupled with the highly cash-generative nature of our model, keep us on track to deliver unchanged free cash flow of £460m to £520m. We remain confident in our long-term strategy and my thanks go to our colleagues worldwide for their continued hard work and focus.”
JD has already primed the market for a fourth consecutive year of falling profits, with analysts looking for signs of when the retailer could return to like-for-like sales growth.
