Proactive Investors - JD Sports Fashion PLC (LON:JD) said it is “outperforming a challenging market” in a full-year trading update posted today.
Profit before tax is tipped to be in line with the £915-935 million guided range, meaning like-for-like sales should be up 4.2% year on year, or 8.4% on an organic basis.
Total sales grew 3.6% to £10.5 billion while gross margins were 47.3%, the group confirmed.
JD Sports will be hoping the update resuscitates the group’s flailing share price, which has fallen more than a quarter year to date.
The group issued a profit warning in January, saying that milder weather, a softer peak trading session and “cautious consumer spending” were impacting the top line.
But today’s update at least bodes better for JD than ASOS’s results earlier this week, when it signalled an 18% slide in revenues.
Chief executive Régis Schultz warned that “the current trading environment remains challenging due to less product innovation and elevated promotional activity, especially online”.
“We anticipate trading conditions will improve as we move through the year, helped by a busy sporting summer and softer comparatives with last year.”
Profit before tax for the year ahead is guided at the £900-£980 million range.