High street retailer JD Sports has reported good growth in sales for the second quarter as it continues to expand internationally.
The sports, fashion and outdoor brands retailer achieved like-for-like sales growth of 2.4% and organic sales growth of 8.3% in the 13 weeks to 3 August 2024.
“In particular, we saw double-digit organic sales growth in North America and Europe, supported by the continued success of our JD store rollout programme,” said Régis Schultz, chief executive of JD Sports.
“We completed the acquisition of Hibbett Inc just before the period end and we look forward to its contribution to the growth and development of our US business in the coming years.”
For the first half of its fiscal year, JD Sports recorded like-for-like sales growth of 0.7% and organic sales were up 6.4%.
Schultz said that the quarter-on-quarter trading improvement was “driven primarily by the strength of our multi-brand operating model and softer comparatives with the previous year”.
JD Sports opened 85 new stores during the first half. With the Hibbett acquisition and the ongoing disposal of “non-core” stores, the company ended the period with a total of 4,506 stores, up by 1,189 from the start of the year.
The company warned that the market remains “volatile” but maintained its full-year profit guidance of £955m to £1,035m.
