JD Sports has said it “remains cautious” on its outlook as indirect impacts of tariffs, tough trading conditions and strains on consumer finances persist.
The sportswear giant saw like-for-like group revenue fall 3% in the 13 weeks to August 2, but organic sales were up 2.2%.
For the 26 weeks to August 2, like-for-like group revenue declined 2.5%.
North America, Europe and UK like-for-like sales fell 2.3%, 1.1% and 6.1% respectively, while Asia Pacific saw a small uptick in like-for-like sales at 0.3%.
It said Europe and the UK were affected by “tough prior year comparatives” due to the men’s Euro 2024 tournament.
Looking ahead, JD expects profit before tax to be in line with expectations, but it will “continue to assess potential impacts from US tariffs”.
It is cautious of performance in the second half of the year, but JD historically generates more profits in this period due to seasonality.
The group also completed a £100m share buyback programme in July and will return a further £100m via a share buyback scheme.
JD Sports chief executive Régis Schultz said: “We are making strong progress in developing our omnichannel customer proposition, store footprint and supply chain, and we are controlling our costs and cash effectively. I am proud of all our teams across the globe for their energy and focus against tough trading conditions.
“For Q2, in North America, we saw an improved performance following the deferral of several product launches from Q1, along with stronger sales trends in apparel and online. In both Europe and the UK, we were annualising tough comparators from the Euros football tournament last year, but still saw a good underlying performance in apparel and from newer footwear lines.
“Across our regions and fascias, in general, we see a resilient consumer, albeit very selective on their purchases. We therefore remain cautious on the trading environment going into H2. For our FY26 profit before tax and adjusting items, we expect to be in line with current market expectations, before any indirect impact of US tariffs, which we continue to work through.
“We are well placed to continue growing our market share in the key growth regions of North America and Europe, and confident about the medium-term growth prospects for our industry.
“Reflecting this, we are reaffirming our commitment to enhanced shareholder returns, and announcing today a new £100m share buyback following the successful completion of the first £100m programme last month.”
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