JD Sports warns of lower profits; pound rises amid pressure on Reeves – business live
JD Sports warns of lower profits; pound rises amid pressure on Reeves – business live
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Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. JD Sports, Britain’s biggest sports retailer, has issued another profit warning, blaming heavy discounting across the fashion market, while the online grocer Ocado reported its best Christmas ever.
Régis Schultz, the JD chief executive, said “market headwinds were higher than we anticipated”. The company owns JD Sports, Size?, Blacks and Millets in the UK as well as Finish Line in the US and Sports Zone and Sprinter in mainland Europe. Despite a strong Christmas, with like-for-like revenue in December up 1.5%, JD sales are flat in its financial year so far, and are expected to show no growth for the year as a whole. As a result, the retailer expects full-year profit before tax to come in between £915m and £935m. In November, it said profits would be at the lower end of its previous range of between £955m and £1.03bn.
Shoe sales have grown and outperformed clothing, and JD’s stores did better than online sales, it said. JD’s poor performance comes amid a difficult period for fashion retail in the UK as a warm autumn and start to the winter held back sales of more expensive items such as boots and coats while storms disrupted trips to the high street in many parts of the country, writes our retail correspondent Sarah Butler.
