By Sarah Young
British sportswear retailer JD Sports Fashion warned annual profit would come in at the lower end of its guided range after a tough October of discounting, mild weather and consumer caution, sending its shares down 9%.
FTSE 100-listed JD, which sells Nike, Adidas and other sports brands in Britain, Europe and the United States, said on Thursday that volatile trading last month meant underlying sales fell 0.3% in its third quarter to Nov. 2.
The company said in the U.S., where it has over 1,200 stores, demand had been suppressed ahead of the election there in early November. Underlying sales in North America in the period were down 1.5%.
“The trading environment remains volatile,” CEO Regis Schultz said in a statement.
Shares in JD traded down 9% to 101 pence in early deals, bringing losses over the last month to 25%.
Investec analysts said the group’s longer term growth opportunities were being overlooked but better trading would need to be seen before any recovery in valuation.
JD had in October reassured investors on growth, citing its multi-brand strategy following worries over sales of Nike products, which account for 45% of JD sales. Nike had separately warned about discounting ahead of Christmas.
But JD said on Thursday it was positioned well for Christmas.
Nike is trying to win back market share with new product launches after losing out to more innovative brands such as Roger Federer backed On and Deckers Outdoor’s Hoka.
For the full financial year, JD said pretax profit would come in at the lower end of the 955 million pound ($1.21 billion) to 1.035 billion pound guided range. In its 2023/24 year, it made 917.2 million pounds.
Peel Hunt analysts said they would lower their forecasts to reflect the softer trading, and noted that JD Sports would likely take around a 30 million pound hit from changes to social security contributions in Britain next year.
“There is no change to the wider strategy: it has just been a slightly slower run-up to peak,” they said.
($1 = 0.7909 pounds) (Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Jan Harvey and Kirsten Donovan)
