JD Sports Says Increased Promotional Activity Across Market Hurt Holiday Sales
JD Sports is lowering its guidance for the year despite a “strong Christmas” selling season.
According to the UK-based athletic retailer, market headwinds were higher than anticipated in the fourth quarter. “With these trading conditions expected to continue, we are taking a cautious view of the new financial year,” Régis Schultz, chief executive officer of JD Sports Fashion Plc, said in the company’s trading update on Tuesday.
Overall, the company said like-for-like revenue across November and December fell 1.5 percent, citing a “challenging and volatile market” that saw increased promotional activity during the period.
The news caused a dip in the retailer’s stock. As of Tuesday afternoon, shares for JD Sports were down over 5 percent.
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“Considering the current headwinds in the market, we performed well, delivering organic revenue growth of 3.4 percent across the period, and a strong Christmas resulted in like-for-like revenue growth in December,” Schultz said.
Despite the dip in sales during the period, JD Sports said that it delivered record Black Friday week sales of over 300 million pounds with like-for-like sales up 14 percent. The company noted that it also saw its “best-ever” Christmas week sales of more than 400 million pounds with sales up 28 percent.
“Footwear sales grew and outperformed apparel, and our stores outperformed our online channel,” Schultz noted. “We saw a strong like-for-like revenue performance through the period from our sporting goods and outdoor segment, and like-for-like revenue growth in Europe and Asia Pacific partially offset weaker like-for-like trading across the UK and North America.”
Interestingly, JD Sports noted that it sold more than 2 million pairs of Nike Air Force 1s and Nike Dunks in North America across the period and had its “best-ever” sales day in the company’s Macy’s concessions in North America of over $36 million.
Looking ahead, the retailer now expects its full-year profit before tax and adjusting items to be between 915 million pounds and 935 million pounds. This update is down from the guidance JD Sports gave in November which forecasted profit before tax and adjusting items to be between 955 million pounds and 1.035 billion pounds.
JD Sports is expected to provide a full fourth quarter trading update and provide guidance for fiscal year 2026 in March.
