JD Sports plans to open 23 stores and convert another 15 stores to the JD banner in Spain and Portugal, according to Diffusion Sport. Chief among the new ones will be locations in Barcelona and Tenerife. This could be a first stage or a modification of the plan we reported on last month, in which 28 to 30 Sprinter and Sport Zone stores in Spain were to switch to the JD banner by 2025.
The 15 stores now up for conversion are located in Huelva, Benidorm, Playa de Aro and Las Palmas and operate under the Sprinter banner. Sprinter and Sport Zone are under the control of JD-owned Iberian Sports Retail Group (ISRG), whose minority owners JD bought out in November of last year.
At any rate, once the current plan is carried out, the British firm will operate 160 stores on the peninsula. Some 127 of these will be in Spain, which will become JD’s second-biggest European market after the domestic markets of the UK and Ireland.
“We’re continuing to shore up our position not just in Iberia but all over Europe while noting that our main competitors have suffered a slowdown in their expansion, either because of internal restructuring or because they’re opening new stores only through franchising, especially in Spain and Portugal, says Gabriele Bocci, who is heading up JD’s expansion in Iberia.
