JD Sports to beat profit forecasts after strong Christmas sales

The chairman of JD Sports Fashion said he was “delighted” with the sportswear retailer’s performance over Christmas as the company raised its profit outlook for the full year.

Like-for-like (LFL) sales were up 12% in the five weeks to 3 January, which was “particularly pleasing given the strong comparatives of the previous year and indeed prior years”, the company said on Friday.

LFL sales for the first 48 weeks of the financial year were up 12%.

As such, JD Sports said that, after taking into account certain infrastructure cost increases during the year to support the larger and more international business, profit before tax and exceptional items for our continuing operations "will exceed the top end of market expectations" for the financial year ending 1 February, which currently range up to £90m.

This compares with a pre-tax profit of £77m registered in the year ended February 2014.

"I am delighted to be able to report that the great momentum I reported in the Sports Fascias in all our territories earlier in the financial year has been maintained during the key Christmas period, particularly when measured against strong comparatives in prior years,” said executive chairman Peter Cowgirl.