Sports retailer's revenues jumped 20% to £970m
Companies: JD Sports Fashion Plc
Sports fashion retailer JD Sports (LON:JD) has reported its half-year results this morning, announcing another period of record performance with profits up a huge 73% during the period.
The Manchester based retailer, who own several brands including Blacks and Millets, reported revenue of £970m (+20% YoY), operating profit of £78m (+63%), and profit before tax of £77m (+73% YoY). The results are particularly impressive considering the previous period was itself a record, showing the group are consistently posting record results.
JD reported further strong LFL sales growth and continued international development, with 20 new stores opening across Europe. The group made "notable complementary" acquisitions in the Netherlands and Portugal during the period, too.
JD has made encouraging progress in Outdoor in H1, with total operating losses reduced to £2.3m from £4.5m. The group say H1 has traditionally been the weaker period for these parts of the business, and as such, its efforts to improve the Spring/Summer proposition have had positive results.
The results come at a time when the company's main rival, Sports Direct, is under increasing scrutiny from HMRC and the British press over its working conditions. JD sports share price is up 51% for the year, whilst Sports Direct shares are down more than 57% for the same period.
Peter Cowgill, Executive Chairman, said it had been another period of excellent progress for the Group, and given last year's results were also a record, the latest figures had "exceeded reasonable expectations". According to Mr Cowgill, continued favourable trends for athletics clothing and footwear in Europe had helped the firms success, a market which he said JD were "very much at the centre of". He confirmed that trading H2 was also encouraging:
"Notwithstanding the demanding comparatives going forward following the strong revenue growth in the previous three years, the positive nature of trading in the second half to date is encouraging."
