JD Sports shares fall as it reports lower profits, but it stays upbeat after year of acquisitions
Growth in its newer markets resulted in a 'better business balance geographically with North America generating 37% of revenue, Europe 31%, the UK 28% and Asia Pacific 4%'.
Its retail stores grew revenue by 15.7% to £9.081 billion with the online channel declining 2.9% to £2.251 billion, 'reflecting the continued shift back to pre-pandemic online participation, our focus on online profitability and our investment in stores'. As a result, stores now represent 79% of its revenue and online is 20%, with 'other', mainly gym memberships, at 1%. The company stressed that it's channel-agnostic.
Footwear continued to perform strongly with revenue growth of 15.2% to £6.819 billion, driven by its acquisitions being mostly footwear-focused, while apparel grew 4.2% to £3.55 billion. Accessories revenue grew by 4.8% to £702 million. This means 'we continue to build a good mix of products delivering a 'head-to-toe' shopping opportunity with footwear at 60%, apparel at 31% and accessories at 6% of revenue'.
It ended the period with 4,850 stores worldwide, 1,533 more than at the start of the period, due mainly to the acquisitions of Hibbett and Courir, which added 1,485 stores. Across all fascias, 311 stores were opened and 263 stores were closed, including 66 from Finish Line and Macy's as it continued to rationalise the store portfolio. It also converted 29 stores to JD from Finish Line in the US and a further 21 to JD from other European fascias.
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