Business
JD SPORTS FASHION PLC Q325 TRADING UPDATE
JD SPORTS FASHION PLC Q325 TRADING UPDATE.
About this update from Jd Sports Fashion Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n21 November 2024\nJD SPORTS FASHION PLC\nQ325 TRADING UPDATE\n \nStrong margin management in volatile market; well positioned for peak season\n \nJD Sports Fashion Plc (the 'Group'), the leading retailer of sports, fashion and outdoor brands, today announces its third quarter trading update for the 13 weeks to 2 November 2024 (the 'period').\nRégis Schultz, CEO of JD Sports Fashion Plc, said: \"After a good start to the period, helped by strong back-to-school sales, we saw increased trading volatility in October, particularly in North America and the UK, reflecting elevated promotional activity and mild weather. Against this backdrop, we maintained our commercial discipline, improving gross margin by 0.3%pts while still delivering 5.4% organic sales growth. In addition, we made further, strong progress on our long-term growth strategy including opening 79 new JD stores across the world.\nWe have performed well in the key trading events this year and we are well positioned for the upcoming peak season. The trading environment remains volatile though and, following October trading, we now anticipate full year profit to be at the lower end of our guidance range.\"\nWe had a strong back-to-school period but we saw much softer consumer demand and trading toward the end of the period, reflecting elevated promotional activity, unseasonable weather and a cautious consumer, with evidence supporting suppressed demand in the US ahead of the election. Against this backdrop, we maintained our operating discipline to deliver on our long-term commercial strategy rather than a short-term sales focus. As a result, gross margin for the Group in the period increased 0.3%pts to 48.1% with the year-to-date gross margin for the Group now at 48.2%, in line with the corresponding period.\nDriven by our successful store rollout programme, organic sales growth in the period was 5.4% with year-to-date organic sales growth of 6.1%. The more volatile environment was reflected in like-for-like (LFL) sales for the period down 0.3% with a good August and September offset by a softer October. At the end of the period, year-to-date LFL sales growth was 0.5%. On a LFL basis, stores continued to outperform online and footwear continued to outperform apparel in the period.\nAll segments achieved organic sales growth in the period, driven by new space ...