JD Sports sees PBT rise to £138m despite UK sales decline

JD Sports has revealed that its statutory profit-before-tax rose 9.5% to £138m, up from £126m, for the half year ended 2 August 2025.

It comes despite a 1.7% decline in UK sales which the company attributed to tough comparatives as a result of the men’s Euro 2024 football tournament.

Overall, the company delivered organic sales growth of 2.7%, supported by 156 new store openings worldwide. It also saw its sales rise to £5.94bn for the period, an increase of 20% on a constant currency basis, including the acquisitions of Hibbett and Courir.

This was driven by strong performance in North America, which now accounts for around 39% of group sales. The company achieved organic sales growth of 3.1% in H1 in the region which helped to offset weaker UK performance.

Furthermore, Europe delivered 6% organic revenue growth, aided by 44 new JD stores in markets including Spain, Italy, France and Poland. Overall, North America and Europe represented 71% of group sales in the period.

JD CEO Régis Schulz said: “We delivered organic sales growth of +2.7% in H1, in what remains a tough trading environment. This demonstrates the resilience of our business, underpinned by our agile multi-brand model, broad geographic reach and unmatched connection with customers.

“In North America, where we gained market share in the period, the development of our operations is progressing well. We continue to build strong brand awareness of the JD fascia by building out our customer proposition and investing in new stores; and for our complementary fascias we are successfully progressing the integration of Hibbett, while DTLR and Shoe Palace took over the operations of City Gear in June.”

He added: “Our supply chain investments are poised to unlock significant efficiencies across our global network. Our new European distribution centre in Heerlen, the Netherlands, is set to launch automation for JD Europe store replenishment in the coming weeks, while our US west coast site in Morgan Hill is set to go live with JD and Finish Line by year-end – the next step of our plan to leverage our distribution centres on a multi-fascia basis.

“In an environment of strained consumer finances and evolving brand product cycles, operating and financial discipline remains a core focus for JD, and we are controlling our costs and cash well. Whilst we remain cautious on the trading environment for the second half, we expect limited impact from US tariffs this financial year, and our full year profit before tax and adjusting items to be in line with current market expectations.”