16th Sep 2015 06:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - JD Sports Fashion PLC on Wednesday reported growth in profit in the first half of its financial year, boosted by strong sales growth in sports fashion, and said that trading so far in the second half as been positive.
The retailer, which also sells outdoor clothing, reported a rise in pretax profit in the 26 weeks ended August 1 of GBP44.7 million from GBP23.7 million in the same period the year before, as revenue grew 21% to GBP809.9 million from GBP670.3 million.
JD said that its sales were driven by a continued strong performance from its sports fashion segment, which saw like-for-like sales growth above 10%, and that it also experienced an "encouraging" reduction in losses in its outdoor clothing business.
JD will pay an interim dividend of 1.20 pence, up 4.3% on the 1.15p it paid the prior year.
"In an extremely competitive market for Sports Fashion footwear across Europe, we must acknowledge that the levels of organic growth that we have seen over the last two years are unlikely to continue indefinitely, albeit the JD brand continues to strengthen and further opportunities prevail," Chairman Peter Cowgill said in a statement.
"Our current successful exploitation of these favourable market conditions reflects investments that we have made over a number of years in developing our multi-channel retail proposition and driving improved buying, merchandising and retailing disciplines. We continue to invest heavily in these areas," he added.
JD Sports Fashion added that it is encouraged by the positive trading it is seeing so far in the second half of the year, but warned that the implementation of the UK living wage next year will "impact earnings".
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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