14th Jan 2016 07:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sports and outdoor clothing retailer JD Sports Fashion PLC on Thursday said trading remained good during the key Christmas period, with like-for-like sales rising, and upgraded its expectations for the year to the end of January again.
FTSE 250-listed JD Sports, which upgraded its full-year expectations twice last year thanks to strong trading, said like-for-like sales in its core estate, including in Europe, rose 11% in the five weeks to January 2.
As a result, the group said its headline pretax profit, before exceptional items, for the currently financial year is anticipated to be higher than the GBP136.0 million markets currently expect.
In addition, JD Sports said it has decided not to continue with a project to replace its core IT systems. It said its in-house IT team has been strengthened and it has decided to focus on managing any shifts in its IT system in-house in order to keep the costs of doing so, and the risks such changes pose to its business, low.
JD will publish its results for the 52 weeks to January 30 on April 13.
"I am delighted to report that the exceptional performance in the year to date has continued during the key Christmas period. This is particularly pleasing given the very strong comparatives in the core Sports Fashion fascias in the prior two years," said Peter Cowgill, JD Sports' executive chairman.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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