JD Sports Fashion Plc, the UK-based parent of the JD, Finish Line, Hibbett Sports, DTLR, Shoe Palace, and City Gear global retail brands, stumbled in its home UK market in the second quarter but saw improving comp sales trends in its largest market, North America. The company attributed a tougher quarter for the UK and Europe to tough year-over-year comparatives, which were impacted by the Euro 2024 tournament.

The company remains cautious in its outlook, noting that consumers are increasingly selective about their purchases.

Other key points included in JD’s second quarter report included:

  • Good performance in apparel; footwear is softer, given the end of the cycle for key product lines.
  • Maintained trading discipline with controlled price investments, especially online.
  • Strong progress against strategic objectives across the omni-channel customer proposition, store footprint, supply chain, and North America operations. Costs and cash remain well controlled.
  • JD expects FY26 profit before tax and adjusting items (PBTAI) to meet current market expectations, while continuing to assess potential impacts from U.S. tariffs.

The company also announced on Wednesday, August 27, a new £100 million share buyback program, which it reported reflects confidence in medium-term industry growth, ongoing market share gains and focused execution.

“We are making strong progress in developing our omni-channel customer proposition, store footprint and supply chain, and we are controlling our costs and cash effectively. I am proud of all our teams across the globe for their energy and focus against tough trading conditions,” offered Regis Schultz, CEO, JD Sports Fashion Plc. “For Q2, in North America, we saw an improved performance following the deferral of several product launches from Q1, along with stronger sales trends in apparel and online. In both Europe and the UK, we were annualizing tough comparators from the Euros football tournament last year, but still saw a good underlying performance in apparel and from newer footwear lines.”

Sales Performance by Region

North America (36 percent of Q2 sales)

  • Resilient performance led by JD and DTLR banners, against strong Q2 comparatives.
  • Good performance in newer footwear lines (following a shift in the product launch schedule from Q1, as previously highlighted), partially offsetting the impact of key product lines being at the end of cycle.
  • Strong performance in apparel, albeit a smaller proportion of our category mix in North America.
  • Much improved overall online performance, supported by a better online range and focused marketing.
  • Continuing to manage the conversion to JD of the Finish Line fascia, where market-driven promotional intensity remains higher than normal in the short term.
  • Pricing and gross margin percent well well-managed overall.

North American operations

  • DTLR and Shoe Palace took over the operations of 198 City Gear stores on June 1.
  • A new JD/Finish Line e-commerce platform went live in H1.
  • Shoe Palace’s Morgan Hill distribution center (west coast of the U.S.) went live in May, with JD/Finish Line planning to go live at the end of this year. This will make Morgan Hill the JD Group’s first multi-fascia distribution center, unlocking significant improvements in speed to store replenishment and online fulfillment

Europe (34 percent of Q2 sales) and UK (26 percent of Q2 sales)

  • Both regions were said to have had tough comparatives from:
    • last year’s Euro 2024 football tournament (replica kit and instore cross-sell) and
    • athletic footwear for women
  • Resilient underlying performance in apparel, supported by a strong product offering.
  • Footwear performance in both regions supported by newer footwear lines (especially performance-based) and value-oriented footwear, against tough comparatives, especially in footwear for women and juniors.
  • Maintained in-store pricing disciplines in both regions. Controlled price investments in the online offer to boost competitiveness and increase engagement with online customers. Reflected in higher European online traffic and conversion in Q2.

European operations
JD Group’s Heerlen distribution center (The Netherlands) continues to ramp up, and is on track to launch automation this year (for stores, with online to follow in H1 next year)

Stores
JD Sports had more focused JD banner store openings in the first half (H1).

In H1, the company opened new JD banner flagship stores in the UK (Trafford Centre, Manchester), North America (Las Vegas and Vancouver), and the Asia Pacific (Melbourne), with positive early learnings and strong results, particularly from the Trafford Centre store.

Also in the period, North America saw the conversion of 22 Finish Line stores into JD banner stores. Global JD comped down 3.0 percent and delivered organic sales growth of 3.7 percent year-over-year, with 42 net new JD stores driven by North America and Europe.

Sales Performance by Store Concept


Outlook
On overall trading conditions through H2, JD said it remains cautious given the continued strains on consumer finances, unemployment risk and the ongoing shift in the footwear product cycle.

Other key notes on the outlook include:

  • JD expects to be in line with current market expectations for FY26 profit before tax and adjusting items (PBTAI), but continues to assess the potential impacts from U.S. tariffs. JD does not consider the direct impacts of U.S. tariffs on JD to be material. Regarding indirect impacts, the company stated that it continues to monitor the ever-changing landscape of tariffs, maintaining close contact with brand partners to discuss their approaches to addressing the situation.
  • Profit phasing H1/H2
    • Historically, JD has generated more of its annual profits in H2 owing to seasonality within the business.
    • In FY26, H2 is likely to represent ~60 percent of PBTAI, including the impact of:
      • An expected mark-to-market (non-cash) net charge of c.£14m in H1, mainly related to the revaluation of open FX hedging contracts as of 2 August 2025.
      • The expected benefit in H2 from U.S. (Hibbett) synergies is beginning to materialize.

Image courtesy Hibbett / JD Sports Fashion Plc