UK sportswear giant JD Sports expects profit for its current year to match its all-time highest level based on its year-to-date sales growth.
At the company’s AGM meeting later on Friday, it will tell investors that group sales in the first five months of the year were 5 percent ahead of the previous year.
Based on that growth, it said it expects headline profit before tax and exceptional items for the year ended January 28 2023 to be in line with its record profit the prior year.
It also expects the phasing of the profit in the current year to “reflect a more normalised trading pattern”, with approximately 35 percent to 40 percent of profits generated in the first half.
In the year to January 29 2022, the group posted a headline profit before tax and exceptional items of 947.2 million pounds, more than double the 421.3 million pounds it reported a year earlier.
In the same period, revenue was up 38.8 percent to 8.56 billion pounds.
JD Sports also said Friday that Andy Higginson, who joined the board as chair on July 11, is “fully involved” in the process of recruiting a new group CEO. in the meantime, Kath Smith is serving as interim chief executive.
