The British retail group JD Sports Fashion Plc closed the 2022/23 financial year with a strong increase in sales. However, the profit was significantly below the previous year’s level, not least due to negative special effects. This is the result of preliminary figures published by the company on Wednesday.
Accordingly, group sales in the past financial year, which ended on January 28, amounted to 10.1 billion British pounds (11.6 billion euros). Compared to the previous year, this meant an increase of 18 percent. Adjusted for exchange rate changes, revenues grew by 12 percent.
However, higher discounts and one-off charges totaling around 550 million pounds sterling meant that profits fell well short of the previous year’s level. The bottom line was net income attributable to shareholders of £142.5 million (EUR 163.6 million). In the previous financial year, the corresponding surplus was still 369.7 million British pounds. However, the company emphasized that the profit before tax adjusted for special effects could be increased by five percent to 991.4 million British pounds.
According to the retailer, the new financial year has started successfully. In the first 13 weeks, currency-adjusted organic sales were more than 15 percent higher than the corresponding prior-year level, the company said. For the financial year as a whole, management currently expects profit before tax, adjusted for special effects, in the range of market expectations of 1.03 billion British pounds.