By Rupert Hargreaves
FTSE 100 retailer JD Sports Fashion – ‘The King or Trainers’ – added seven per cent to top the FTSE 100 today after US peer Foot Locker raised its sales outlook for the year.
Foot Locker said steep discounts helped it pull in customers looking for deals. Even though the company reported a 470 basis point decline in margins, the market celebrated a smaller-than-expected forecast decline in holiday-quarter comparable sales.
Chief Mary Dillon said the company saw “strong results” over the Thanksgiving week. It has projected comparable sales to be down 8.5 per cent to 9 per cent for the year, as against its previous forecast of comparable sales down 9 per cent to 10 per cent year-on-year.
The results followed numbers from Dick’s Sporting Goods, another US retailer, which raised its profit outlook after posting sales that were “meaningfully ahead” of analyst expectations.
JD Sports has grown to become a global retail champion over the past decade. It is projected to earn a pre-tax profit of £1bn this year on revenue of £10bn. While it started in the UK, the US is now its largest market.
For the 26 weeks ended 29 July, JD Sports reported a 8.3 per cent jump in revenue and 25.8 per cent increase in pre-tax profit.
Cheif Régis Schultz said: “In line with our strategic plan, growth is being driven by our premium Sports Fashion business with an impressive performance in Europe (+27%) and North America (+15%), supported by a strong performance in our more mature UK market (+8%). This performance continued in the important back to school period.”
