JD Sports sees late rush
Sports retailer’s founders to take back seat
January 14 2004
Christmas came late for JD Sports as disappointing sales in the first three weeks of December were a balanced by strong demand in the final few days before Christmas and a very strong sale period starting on Boxing Day.
John David Group has also announced that co-founders John Wardle and David Makin are to hand over their remaining roles to become non-executive directors.
With the company seeing strong performance sales in November, over the eight weeks to January 3, JD saw a 2.1 per cent in actual sales, while due to the company’s store closure programme like-for-like sales increased by 3.7 per cent.
Almost 40 underperforming stores will have been closed by the end of the financial year in February as the company trims back to five fascias – JD Sports, Nike, Open, Size and Athleisure.
JD said that due to lower margins achieved across the trading period, as well quiet trading over the past few years, full year profits are “unlikely to exceed” the low end of market forecasts.
Wardle and Makin are handing over day-to-day responsibility to executive chairman Roger Best. Wardle said: “David and I are both proud of what the many years’ of hard work have achieved at JD. The time is now right both from the business’ point of view and our own to take the decision to step down from our executive roles.”
Best said: “Largely due to John and David’s efforts, JD is one of the UK’s retail success stories and, with the plans that we have in place, I am confident we will take the Group to new heights. The positive Christmas trading period just ended is a key milestone.”
