Global sportswear retailer JD Sports on Thursday said profit for the year had dropped, but were continuing with a robust overseas expansion programme.
Despite profit dipping, revenue bounced back in the 26 weeks to July 2022 with sales hitting £4,418.1m.
However, the market choose to focus on rising costs and JD Sports shares slipped 4% in early trade on Thursday.
The jump in revenue was more than offset by rising administrative costs and the costs of distribution as operating profit fell to £332.9m in the period, down from £396.8m a year prior.
Although JD Sports are facing rising costs in the short-term, they continued to push forward with expansion plans and opened up new stores in all geographies.
The group has recently opened stores in Greece and were planning new openings in Hungary as their expansion across Europe continued. JD opened 32 new stores across Europe to total 428 while the number of North America stores grew to 937. Ongoing focus on the UK was demonstrated with 440 stores at the end of the period.
“The progress that the Group is making in its global markets is reflected by the fact that total sales in the Group’s organic retail businesses were 5% ahead of the prior year,” said JD Sports Non-Executive Chair, Andrew Higginson.
“This performance is very encouraging, as notwithstanding the non-comparability of trading conditions in the United States, the Group has also faced numerous other challenges in the period including the well-publicised shortage of supply from a number of the international brands and the challenging global macro-economic situation”
Investors will also be digested forecasts the groups full year performance will largely be inline with last year’s, and the board remains cautious around economic conditions during the busiest period of the year for JD Sports trading.