JD Sports says full year profit will be ahead of market expectations

JD Sports Fashion Plc has said in a statement that against a backdrop of further forced temporary store closures in many of the global territories, total revenues for the twenty two week period to January 2, 2021 in the group’s like for like businesses were more than 5 percent ahead of the prior year as consumers switched between physical and digital channels. The company added that based on the positive nature of the demand through the second half, it is confident of achieving group full year headline profit before tax significantly ahead of the current market expectations, which average approximately 295 million pounds. It is now anticipated that the outturn for the full year will be at least 400 million pounds.

The company further said that looking ahead, it is clear that operational restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic will also be a material factor through at least the first quarter of the year to January 29, 2022. “Whilst we are confident that we have the proposition to continue to attract consumers throughout this period, the process to scale down activity in stores and scale up the digital channels, often at extremely short notice, presents significant challenges,” JD Sports said.

“Given the ongoing uncertain outlook with stores in the UK likely to be closed until at least Easter and closures in other countries possible at any time, our current best estimate is that the Group headline profit before tax for the full year to 29 January 2022 will be 5 percent to 10 percent ahead of the current year,” it added.