JD Sports Fashion says sales growth is continuing

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 22, 2022

JD Sports Fashion had some good news on Friday as it released a short trading update head of its annual general meeting. It said that following on from the upbeat news about trading in the first four months of the financial year (released exactly one month ago), June continued to see a “positive performance”.

In a stock exchange statement, the company had said last month that it was “reassured with trading in the first four months of the year with total sales in the group's like-for-like businesses 5% ahead of the prior year”. On Friday it added that it “can advise that this positive performance has continued through June" and that, after five months, it's still head by that 5% figure.

It means that — for now at least — the board is maintaining its view that headline profit before tax and exceptional items for the year end 28 January 2023 will be “in line with the record performance for the year ended 29 January 2022”. It also expects that “the phasing of the profit in the current year will reflect a more normalised trading pattern with approximately 35% to 40% of profits generated in the first half”.

That’s all reassuring at a time when even previously strong retailers have been saying that the cost-of-living crisis has been impacting consumer spending.

JD Sports didn’t have any update on its search for a new CEO following the arrival earlier this month of new chairman Andy Higginson. He’s “fully involved in the process to recruit a new group CEO” and for now, Kath Smith continues in the role of interim CEO “and is working well with the group's senior leadership team to execute [its] strategic objectives and progress the ongoing global development opportunities”.