JD Sports Fashion indicated a few days ago that it expects to report pre-tax earnings of at least £900 million (€1,074m) for the financial year ended Jan. 29, up from previous guidance of £750 million given in September and £810 million on Jan. 12. On the other hand, the international U.K.-based sports and outdoor retailer said that the final results would be published after the previously scheduled date of April 12. A new timetable will be announced in due course.
The new forecast follows an increase of more than 10 percent in the group’s sales on a comparable basis for the 22 weeks ended Jan. 1, with equally positive performance during the Black Friday and Christmas periods. The positive performance continued into January, JD said.
The company justified the delay in the release of the final annual figures with the need to give KPMG sufficient time to complete its global audit of the increasingly complex group and to allow JD to report the effect of the planned divestment of the Footasylum chain, ordered by anti-trust authorities, “with greater certainty.”
JD said the additional time would also enable the group to complete a review of its governance procedures and policies in light of an ongoing process to divide the current joint role of executive chairman and chief executive officer. Peter Cowgill, who became executive chairman in 2004, cumulates the two functions since the departure of Barry Bown as CEO in May 2014. Bown became executive chairman of Footasylum in 2018 and also its CEO in June 2019, soon after JD’s takeover of the British chain.
