British sportswear retailer JD Sports Fashion reported a 2.4% rise in second-quarter underlying sales, an improvement on the previous quarter, but said it was cautious on its outlook for the rest of the year as the global macro environment remains volatile.
The FTSE 100-listed group, which sells Nike, Adidas, On, HOKA and other sports brands, on Thursday kept its guidance for full-year 2024/25 profit before tax and adjusting items of 955 million pounds to 1.035 billion pounds ($1.24-$1.35 billion), up from the 917.2 million pounds made in 2023/24.
The global sports fashion industry is seeing a slowdown this year and there is a high rate of promotional activity in the market. Nike, the world’s biggest sports brand by revenue, warned in June its sales would fall this year, though No. 2 Adidas has fared better.
Shares in JD Sports have slumped 23% this year, reflecting a January profit warning and Nike’s underperformance, though the retailer has recently been subject to some vague bid speculation.
It said UK like-for-like sales fell 0.8% in the 13 weeks to August 3, its fiscal second quarter, having been down 6.4% in the first quarter.
Like-for-like sales were up 5.7% in North America, up 3.0% in Europe and up 0.1% in the Asia Pacific region.
“The quarter-on-quarter trading improvement was driven primarily by the strength of our multi-brand operating model and softer comparatives with the previous year,” the group said.
The trading period included the Euro 2024 soccer championship and the start of the Paris Olympics.
“The global macro environment remains volatile and so we continue to be cautious on our outlook for the rest of the year,” JD added.
