The British retail group JD Sports Fashion plc presented key data on its sales development in the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year on Thursday. Overall, business developed “solidly” despite ongoing macroeconomic pressures and weaker consumer confidence in key markets, the company said in an interim statement. However, management was more cautious when it came to earnings expectations for the year as a whole.
In the 13 weeks before November 1st, group sales reached around 2.95 billion British pounds (3.36 billion euros). This corresponded to currency-adjusted growth of 8.1 percent compared to the same period last year. The strong increase was largely due to the most recent takeovers. On an organic basis, revenue increased by 2.4 percent. However, according to the company, the gross margin fell by 40 basis points compared to the same quarter last year.
However, CEO Régis Schultz was cautious about the future. The company has observed “increasingly weaker macro and consumer indicators” in recent weeks, he warned in a statement. This includes increasing unemployment in JD’s core target group.
Management only expects results for the current year to be “at the lower end of market expectations.”
Ahead of the important fourth quarter, the group now expects that profit before taxes and special items for the full year will be at the lower end of market expectations. The current consensus forecasts assume an annual profit before taxes of 871 million British pounds, adjusted for special items. The estimates are between 853 and 888 million British pounds.
In the past quarter, group sales fell by 1.7 percent on a like-for-like basis. There were losses in Great Britain (-3.3 percent) and the other European markets (-1.1 percent) as well as in North America (-1.7 percent). In the Asia-Pacific region, however, the group achieved like-for-like sales growth of 3.9 percent.
Schultz emphasized that the group continues to make progress towards its strategic goals despite the difficult conditions. He highlighted the strong sales development in the clothing sector and the continued momentum in the running category of shoes. This also applies even though several important product lines have reached the end of their cycle.
“Our multi-brand, multi-category approach and rapid response to changing consumer trends help us address consumer and industry challenges,” said Schultz.
During the reporting period, the Group continued to invest in digital infrastructure and supply chain optimization. JD launched its new e-commerce platform in Italy, after previously launching it in North America and Asia Pacific. According to the company, the initial results were “promising”.
The group also started automation at its distribution center in Heerlen, the Netherlands. This is “an important milestone that should strengthen deliveries to European branches and increase long-term efficiency,” it said in a statement.
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