CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER'S REVIEW

JD Sports is reinforcing its position as a leading international sports fashion powerhouse, in an attractive and growing market which benefits from ongoing casualisation and active lifestyle trends. In a tough trading environment in the short term - in terms of strained consumer finances together with evolving brand product cycles in athleisure - we have remained calm and focused on consistent execution against our strategic priorities, and strict operational and financial discipline. This is evidenced by market share gains in our key growth markets of North America and Europe in the period.

Above all else, we remain obsessed with delighting our customers by evolving our multi-brand product assortment - including the latest and exclusive premium sports fashion, expanding and enhancing our store footprint, strengthening our omnichannel capabilities, and improving the efficiency of our supply chain to ensure strong product availability and fast fulfilment.

While we recognise that consumer behaviours are evolving in the face of broader uncertainty across the world, by staying close to our customers and brand partners, we believe we can continue to lead with the right products, at the right time, in the right place. Our strong and agile multi-brand business model, underpinned by disciplined execution and a clear strategic focus, positions us well to navigate these challenges.

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Review of H126 performance

Total sales below (in £m) include the results of Hibbett and Courier. JD Group completed the acquisition of Hibbett on 25 July 2024, and Courir on 27 November 2024. Organic sales growth excludes acquisitions and disposals, and is calculated at constant FX rates.

Sales by region

	H1: 26 weeks to 2 August
	Total sales (£m)	Like-for-like	Organic
North America	2,318	(3.8)%	+3.1%
Europe	1,921	(0.3)%	+6.0%
UK	1,464	(3.3)%	(1.7)%
Asia Pacific	237	(2.4)%	+6.0%
Group	5,940	(2.5)%	+2.7%

Sales by segment

	H1: 26 weeks to 2 August
	Total sales (£m)	Like-for-like	Organic
JD	3,674	(3.0)%	+3.7%
Complementary Concepts	1,567	(2.4)%	+1.1%
Sporting Goods & Outdoor	699	-%	(0.8)%
Group	5,940	(2.5)%	+2.7%

Turning to our performance in the 26 weeks to 2 August 2025, we achieved sales of £5,940m, +18.0% on the comparative period, or +20.0% at constant FX rates. Excluding the two businesses acquired in FY25 (Hibbett and Courir), organic sales growth was +2.7% at constant FX rates, which includes a +5.2%pts benefit to sales from net new stores opened across the Group. We believe +2.7% is faster than the growth of our addressable markets, driven by market share gains in North America and Europe. Group LFL sales were -2.5%.

Excluding Hibbett and Courir, the gross margin % for the Group in H1 was 40bps lower YoY. This was largely driven by controlled price investments in the online offer to boost competitivity and increase engagement with online customers. Including acquisitions, the overall Group gross margin % in H1 was 60bps lower YoY at 48.0% (H125: 48.6%).

We are a highly cash generative business, with £546m of operating cash flow (after lease repayments) in H1 +5.0% YoY. Given the seasonality of our business, it is normal to see working capital outflows in the middle of the financial year, before normalising around the year-end. At the end of H1, we had net debt (before lease liabilities) on our balance sheet of £125m. We expect to move to a net cash position (before lease liabilities) by the year-end.

Regional commentary

North America is our largest market by sales, generating 39% of JD Group sales in H1, with Europe at 32%, the UK at 25% and Asia Pacific at 4%.

LFL sales in H1 were resilient in Europe, supported by our sporting goods fascias in Iberia, Greece and Cyprus, and it was encouraging to see improved LFL trends quarter on quarter in both North America and Asia Pacific. In H1, we grew our market share in North America and Europe (source: Circana). In the UK, we see organic sales as a better sales KPI than LFL, given the ongoing evolution of our store footprint with 'bigger and better' stores. See footnote 2 on page 2 for further details. UK organic sales were -1.7% in H1, affected by tough prior year comparatives due to the Euro 2024 football tournament.

Store footprint

We ended H1 with 4,872 stores worldwide, compared with 4,850 at the start of the financial year. Across all fascias, 156 stores were opened and 131 stores were closed, which includes 32 store relocations. Three stores were disposed (within our Outdoor business) as we continued to optimise our store portfolio.

Store numbers (excludes JD Gyms and franchise stores)	Stores as of 1 Feb 2025	Openings	Closures	Transfers	Disposals	Stores as of 2 Aug 2025
JD North America	339	31	(1)	22	0	391
Finish Line	257	0	(15)	(22)	0	220
Macy's	256	0	0	0	0	256
JD Europe	638	44	(10)	1	0	673
JD United Kingdom	434	10	(23)	0	0	421
JD Asia Pacific	102	5	0	0	0	107
JD	2,026	90	(49)	1	0	2,068
DTLR	251	9	(9)	169	0	420
Shoe Palace	202	12	(1)	29	0	242
Hibbett	999	22	(21)	0	0	1,000
City Gear	200	0	(2)	(198)	0	0
Courir	300	8	(1)	0	0	307
Eastern Europe	269	2	(35)	(1)	0	235
Complementary Athleisure	2,221	53	(69)	(1)	0	2,204
Sporting Goods	372	10	(4)	0	0	378
Outdoor	231	3	(9)	0	(3)	222
Sporting Goods & Outdoor	603	13	(13)	0	(3)	600
Group	4,850	156	(131)	0	(3)	4,872

Channel commentary

Delivering a world-class omnichannel experience for our customer remains one of our top priorities:

•   Sales from our 4,872 stores worldwide were 80% of Group sales in H1, at £4.7bn (+22.6% at constant FX rates). Organic store sales were +3.6%, with LFL -3.0%.

•   Online sales, which include click-and-collect orders and home delivery orders shipped from store, were 19% of Group sales in H1, at £1.1m (+11.1% at constant FX rates). Organic online sales were -1.6%.

•   North America saw a much-improved online sales performance in H1, supported by a better online range, focused marketing efforts and, to a lesser extent, the successful roll-out of a new e-commerce platform for the JD and Finish Line fascias. In the UK, where a higher proportion of our sales are from online relative to our other regions, online sales were lower YoY in H1. This was affected by the prevailing trading environment as well as the tough prior year comparatives noted above. In Europe, we made controlled price investments in our online offer, reflected in higher online traffic and conversion as the period progressed. This was supported by the ongoing roll-out of our 'ship‑from-store' fulfilment model.

•   Other sales mainly relate to JD Gym memberships in the UK, and were 1% of Group sales in H1.

Category commentary

Our business model is underpinned by our strong, agile and multi-brand assortment of products, delivering a 'head-to-toe' shopping experience for our customers. Our sales mix is as follows:

•   62% footwear (H125: 60%). We are seeing a fundamental shift in the global footwear product cycle, given the transition between newer franchises and some significant 'end of cycle' product lines. Notwithstanding this, we saw strong growth across brands less affected by transition, which reflects the benefit of our agile, multi-brand model. The early signals for the new franchises (in terms of both product launches and the pipeline) are encouraging, and although small today, present an exciting longer-term opportunity for the Group.

•   28% apparel (H125: 30%). The evolution of the apparel product cycle is very different compared with footwear. Our apparel proposition is in excellent shape, and we believe there is significant scope to leverage this for growth, particularly in North America where our apparel mix is relatively low compared to other regions.

•   6% accessories (H125: 6%)

•   4% other (H125: 4%), which includes outdoor living equipment and gym memberships.

In H1 we saw good underlying apparel sales, supported by a strong product offer, albeit we faced tough comparatives from replica shirt sales in the UK and Europe due to the Euro 2024 football tournament.

 

Footwear sales were generally impacted in all regions by the product cycle dynamics noted above. We saw an encouraging performance in newer footwear lines (especially performance-based lines). Footwear sales as a proportion of overall Group sales increased from 60% to 62% YoY, due to the category mix of our recently acquired businesses, Hibbett and Courir. On an organic basis (excluding Hibbett and Courir), footwear sales were slightly lower (c.-1% to £2.9bn) and apparel grew +c.6% to £1.6bn.

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Strong and focused execution against our strategic objectives

In early 2023, we set out our strategic plan under four pillars (JD First, Complementary Concepts, Beyond Physical Retail and People, Partners & Communities). JD Brand First is our commitment to putting JD at the forefront of premium sports fashion, ensuring that we are the first choice for consumers around the globe. It is the number one priority for the Group. Complementary Concepts is about broadening our reach across customers, geographies and categories, and contributing to our growing scale. Beyond Physical Retail is our investment in infrastructure and technology and digital to support our long-term growth ambitions. And People, Partners & Communities, which reflects our commitment to our people, partners and the communities in which we operate and ensuring we have a fit for purpose governance and control environment.

The Group is focused on driving like-for-like sales and market share growth. We do this through optimising our footwear, apparel and other product ranges to offer our customers the latest, often exclusive, premium sports fashion products - leveraging our unique brand merchandising, marketing and customer insights expertise. We are also building strong omnichannel capabilities, supported where appropriate by loyalty programmes. We leverage the renowned 'JD theatre' within our stores to expand our reach and bring our proposition to life, in an environment that elevates our brand partners' stories and delights our customers. As of 2 August, we operated 4,872 stores across 36 countries, with a further 68 franchise stores in 15 countries, supported by 19% of our Group sales from online channels.

JD Brand First

The JD brand has a strong position globally, with its brand awareness continuing to grow in key growth markets (such as North America). We have deep, long-term partnerships with the leading brands in sports fashion, capitalising on over 40 years of industry experience. And we have a consistent, global framework for the JD fascia - which is adapted according to local customer needs, leveraging our own brands as well as partnerships with new and emerging brands.

In H1 we opened 42 net new JD stores, taking the total to 2,068 as we continued to grow JD's international store footprint. We follow a disciplined approach to capital investment for new stores and, outside of strategic investments in flagships, each new store targets a payback on investment of less than three years.

Highlights in H126 include:

•   In North America, JD saw 30 net store openings including flagship stores in Las Vegas and Vancouver, together with 22 further Finish Line conversions and 15 closures as part of the successful ongoing Finish Line to JD conversion programme. As a reminder, the Finish Line at Macy's stores are not part of this conversion programme. In H1, JD and Finish Line launched their new e-commerce platform, enhancing the capabilities of their websites and apps. Alongside market share gains in H1, JD saw a significant YoY increase in its national aided brand awareness in the US. Building on this momentum, JD is increasing its marketing initiatives in North America to support its growth plans within the region.

•   In Europe, JD opened 35 net new stores, with a focus on Spain, Italy, France and Poland.

•   In the UK, with a leading market position and strong coverage across the country, JD's focus is primarily on improving locations and/or optimising store sizes in existing cities and towns to drive higher productivity. As a result, we saw a net reduction of 13 stores, albeit overall selling space increased. In June we celebrated the opening of a new destination store at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, JD's largest store globally, with very strong early results.

•   In Asia Pacific, we opened 5 new JD stores, including a flagship store in Melbourne, extending our reach in these regions.

•   To further grow the JD brand in other strategic markets, we have made great strides in developing our franchise model. The advantages of this model include collaborating with our experienced partners to leverage their local knowledge and relationships, while also benefiting from low capital expenditure requirements. In addition to the three existing franchising agreements covering the Middle East, South Africa and Indonesia, we were pleased to finalise an agreement in March for franchise operations in the Philippines. We remain committed to exploring further opportunities.

Complementary Concepts

Our complementary athleisure concepts extend our reach within the global sportswear market, driving deeper customer penetration. These include Hibbett, DTLR, Shoe Palace and City Gear in North America, together with Courir and MIG in Europe. In addition to these complementary concepts, we also operate sporting goods businesses through ISRG (Iberia) and Cosmos (Greece and Cyprus), as well as outdoors businesses in the UK (including Go Outdoors, Blacks and Millets).

Our current focus is: (i) further developing our successful city specialist and community fascias within North America, and (ii) developing our complementary sports fashion and sporting goods businesses in Europe, together with our outdoors business in the UK. We continue to make good progress across all these areas.

We ended the first half with 2,204 stores within our Complementary Concepts portfolio, down by a net of 17 from the start of the period, largely reflecting a reduction of stores in Eastern Europe. In addition, our Sporting Goods and Outdoors businesses saw a net reduction of three stores to 600.

Within North America, we operate four core complementary fascias: Hibbett, DTLR, Shoe Palace and City Gear. Together with our JD and Finish Line fascias, we have a comprehensive coverage of geography and customer demographic. To explain our fascias respective roles in the North American market, we have segmented them into 'Premium', 'Reach', and 'Focus':

•   'Premium' is aligned to our 'JD Brand First' strategic pillar. The predominant US JD customer is the same young customer as everywhere else in the world. Our JD stores operate mainly in shopping malls and premium locations.

•   'Reach' is a convenient community format expanding our reach into under-served markets and rural areas. It primarily consists of Hibbett, but we also include our successful Finish Line corners in Macy's which extend our reach to female customers in North America. The integration of Hibbett is progressing well, and we are on track to deliver annualised cost synergies of US$25m, with half-to-two thirds of this expected this year. Hibbett's performance since acquisition has been resilient, against a tough trading backdrop. The business has a category mix currently skewed towards footwear (relative to the Group average), with strong and long-standing relationships with major brand partners in North America who value Hibbett's customer appeal and extensive reach via 1,000 stores. In Q2, the business recorded a positive LFL  sales performance (versus its own numbers - we acquired the business in late Q2 last year).

•   'Focus' is our city specialists in urban areas, including our DTLR, Shoe Palace and City Gear fascias. They are mostly street mall venues, with some presence in covered malls. They are fully complementary on a geographical basis. As planned, in June we transferred the operations of 198 City Gear stores (acquired as part of the Hibbett acquisition) to DTLR and Shoe Palace. Early results following the transfer have been promising.

In Europe, the integration of Courir is proceeding according to plan. The business operates 307 stores across six European countries including its home market in France, as well as 33 franchise stores across nine further countries. Given the demographics of its customer base, the business provides us with unique sports fashion insights into female trends and behaviours in Europe. Courir's sales performance since acquisition has been steady, albeit affected in H1 by strong comparatives in athletic footwear for women.

Beyond Physical Retail

We aim to offer our customers the right products, at the right time, in the right place for them. To do this, we have ongoing programmes to support our 'Beyond Physical Retail' strategic pillar. As set out in our Strategic Update in April 2025, our current focus is on five key priorities: re‑platforming our websites, further strengthening our cyber security (effectively an 'evergreen' project), further development of our omnichannel proposition, developing our loyalty programme, and improving the efficiency of our global supply chain.

On digital, we are making good progress on our investment to re-platform our websites. JD and Finish Line in North America went live with their new e-commerce platform in H1, with the UK and European markets to follow.

Last year we rolled out our successful US loyalty programme, JD STATUS, into the UK, Ireland, France and Eastern Europe, and we are approaching 9m active accounts in these markets with over £1bn of sales from members in H1. This serves as the foundation for developing more targeted and personalised relationships with our customers. In H1 we ran tests of personalised offers during campaign periods, resulting in significant incremental sales.

During the period, we also made progress across many of our global supply chain optimisation projects. To further the benefits, we have embarked on a two-year journey to leverage our distribution centres on a multi-fascia basis.

Highlights in the period include:

•   Our Alabaster distribution centre in Alabama (acquired as part of the Hibbett transaction) is now operating with both Hibbett and DTLR, following the transfer of City Gear operations to the latter.

•   Our automated Morgan Hill distribution centre in California went live in May 2025 and is performing well, achieving all its operational milestones. Alongside Shoe Palace, we are planning for JD and Finish Line to go live within Morgan Hill by the end of this financial year, unlocking significant improvements in speed for store replenishment and online fulfilment.

•   Our new Heerlen distribution centre in the Netherlands continues to ramp up, and is on track on launch automation in the coming weeks (for store replenishment, with online to follow in H1 next year). To minimise the risk of disruption during our peak trading period, we will maintain our site in Belgium in the short term.

•   We have smoothly transitioned operations and started to realise significant efficiencies following the opening of our fully automated distribution centre in Leppington, Australia, at the end of last year.

As a reminder, we expect to see £20m+ of cost benefits related to technology and supply chain double-running costs across FY27 and FY28.

People, Partners & Communities

We recognise that our scale enables us to make positive and lasting changes. We want to provide our colleagues with the best opportunities to develop their individual careers, to be the best partner for the brands, and to create a lasting impact in the communities where we operate. Improving ESG performance is an integral part of our Group strategy.

Highlights in the period include:

•   We're delighted that our ground-breaking new global communications platform, 'JD Now', is making a significant impact on colleague engagement across the Group. The platform, which is app and browser-based, has so far launched in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria and the Nordics, enabling our youthful workforce to collaborate, share best practices and celebrate successes. The uptake is strong in the countries where JD Now has rolled out (for example, over 90% in the UK), and there have been nearly 4m chats on the platform since its launch in February. We have recently started a phased roll-out of the platform in North America.

•   Earlier this year we also commenced the successful roll-out of our new global Human Resources Information System, ensuring a more seamless HR experience for our people. The new platform also integrates a significant library of online learning modules for our people, to encourage and support their development.

•   We are pleased to confirm that we will be launching our annual global people survey in October, following on from the strong engagement and outcomes seen in last year's survey.

•   We place a strong emphasis on nurturing long-term relationships with the leading brands, while also forging partnerships with new and emerging brands. The Group's close relationship and in-depth understanding of our customers enable us to consistently be the first to discover and capitalise on trends. We continue to leverage this strength to test emerging brands and new product franchises at a local level, prior to broader scaling up, with strong results being seen so far this year.

•   We are continuing our work on making a positive community impact. During the period, via a colleague-led process, the JD Foundation nominated 72 local charities to support, with approximately £175k of grants awarded. Reflecting our commitment to empower youth and drive social mobility through the JD Foundation, in February we hosted nearly 4,500 students from 48 schools in Manchester for 'JD UP', our immersive careers experience that gives young people insight into the different roles that make up a global retailer. Following on from JD UP's resounding success in both Manchester and London, similar events are being planned in Spain and the US.

•   Reflecting our commitment to meaningful climate action, we have achieved 'A List' status with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). This recognition places us among a select group of companies leading in environmental transparency and performance. Further to this, during the period we achieved CDP leader status with an 'A' rating for our Supplier Engagement Assessment, which evaluates corporate supply chain engagement on climate issues, playing a key role in our decarbonisation transition.

•   In July, we retained our 'Zero Waste to Landfill' accreditation at our largest UK and European DC and office locations. This demonstrates our commitment to environmental responsibility with improved recycling and waste reduction.

 

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Returns to shareholders

•   Dividends: The Board has declared an interim dividend of 0.33 pence per share, consistent with the prior year. In line with our dividend policy, this represents approximately one third of the final dividend of 1.00 pence per share paid for FY25.

◦  The interim dividend will be paid on 28 November 2025 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 31 October 2025. JD's shares will go ex-dividend on 30 October 2025.

•   Share buybacks: Reflecting our strong free cash flow generation and in accordance with our medium-term capital allocation priorities (outlined on page 11), the Board has determined that surplus capital is available for return to shareholders. In addition to the ordinary dividend and the recently completed £100m first share buyback programme, we announced a further £100m share buyback programme on 27 August 2025. This decision reflects the Board's view that, at current share price levels, share buybacks represents a compelling return on equity.

◦  The new £100m programme will commence following today's publication of our interim results, as previously announced.

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US tariffs

US tariffs have the potential to affect our business across three key areas: directly through our own brand and licensed products, as well as goods not for resale (such as store fixtures and fittings); and indirectly via our brand partners and broader macroeconomic impacts on consumer sentiment.

The direct exposure represents less than 10% of our sales in the US, and we have already taken effective steps to diversify sourcing. As a result, we do not consider the direct impact of tariffs on JD to be material.

On the indirect/brand side, we have spent several months closely monitoring the evolving tariff landscape and maintaining regular dialogue with our brand partners. In general, a significant proportion of their sourcing is concentrated in Southeast Asia, and we are seeing our partners take proactive steps across the supply chain to mitigate cost pressures and maintain competitive pricing. Where retail price increases have occurred, they have typically been targeted rather than applied uniformly.

Overall, for JD Group, we anticipate the financial impact from US tariff exposure in the current financial year to be limited, supported in part by inventory purchased prior to the implementation of tariffs. Looking further ahead, uncertainty remains over broader tariff impacts as well as US consumer sentiment.

 

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Outlook and FY26 guidance

We remain cautious on the trading environment for the second half of the year, reflecting continued pressure on consumer finances, elevated unemployment risk, and the ongoing transition in the footwear product cycle. Despite these headwinds, we expect our full-year profit before tax and adjusting items (FY26 PBTAI) to be in line with current market expectations^(1,2).

We continue to monitor the potential impact of US tariffs. However, based on current assessments, we anticipate the financial impact from US tariff exposure in the current financial year to be limited.

For further technical guidance for FY26, please refer to page 11.

 

 

Régis Schultz

Chief Executive Officer

24 September 2025

 

 

Footnotes

(1)   According to Company-compiled data as of 15 September 2025, the current consensus of 16 sell-side analyst expectations for FY26 PBTAI is £878m, with a range of £853m to £914m.

(2)   Assuming FX rates of GBP-USD of 1.33 and GBP-EUR of 1.16.

 

TECHNICAL GUIDANCE FOR FY26 & MEDIUM-TERM OBJECTIVES AND CAPITAL ALLOCATION PRIORITIES

Please read the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements set out on page 3 of this document.

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FY26 guidance

•   Anticipate LFL sales will be below FY25

•   Acquisitions made during FY25 to add c.10% to total sales in FY26

◦  A full year of Hibbett and Courir, adding c.£1bn of incremental sales vs FY25 at a c.6.5% margin⁽¹⁾

•   New space impact (net) on total sales of c.4%

◦  We anticipate c.75 to 100 net new stores in FY26

•   Additional opex in FY26 of £50m+, outside of normal inflationary increases, including: (i) UK labour costs, and (ii) a higher proportion of technology investments falling into opex as opposed to capex

•   Partially offsetting these increases will be:

◦  Cost savings and efficiencies across our key markets in FY26 of c.£30m

◦  Integration synergies in the US following the Hibbett acquisition - half-to-two thirds of c.US$25m annualised savings expected in FY26, weighted to H2

•   We expect to be in line with current market expectations^(2,3) for FY26 profit before tax and adjusting items (PBTAI), with limited impact expected from US tariffs this financial year

•   Capex of c.£450m to £500m

•   Share buybacks of £200m (£100m completed, and new £100m programme announced on 27 August to commence soon)

FX translational impact

•   A one US cent move impacts FY PBTAI by c.£3m and a one Euro cent move impacts PBTAI by c.£2m

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Medium-term objectives

•   Grow organic sales ahead of the market: driven by both LFL and the contribution from new space growth, with the latter settling at around 3% in the medium term

•   Grow profit ahead of sales: supported by operating leverage and efficiencies over the medium term (supply chain, acquisition synergies, and opex efficiencies & productivity gains)

◦  Across FY27 and FY28, we expect to see £20m+ of cost benefits related to technology and supply chain double‑running costs

•   Strong cash generation: driven by profit growth and more focused store investments and lower supply chain costs, with capex trending down to 3% to 3.5% of sales

Medium-term capital allocation priorities

•   Organic investment: organic investment to fund capex and working capital. As noted above, we see capex trending down to 3% to 3.5% of sales over the medium term

•   Commitments: maintain leverage headroom for the Genesis non-controlling interest buyout in 2029 and 2030

•   Dividend: pay a progressive ordinary dividend

•   Increased investment and/or acquisitions: further organic investment and/or M&A opportunities which enhance ROCE

•   Incremental shareholder returns: return surplus cash

 

 

Footnotes

(1)   Operating margin before adjusting items and after interest on lease liabilities.

(2)   According to Company-compiled data as of 15 September 2025, the current consensus of 16 sell-side analyst expectations for FY26 PBTAI is £878m, with a range of £853m to £914m.

(3)   Assuming FX rates of GBP-USD of 1.33 and GBP-EUR of 1.16.