JD Sports Fashion Plc AGM Trading Update (7318D)
July 01 2021 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMJD.
RNS Number : 7318D
JD Sports Fashion Plc
01 July 2021
1 July 2021
JD Sports Fashion Plc
AGM Trading Update
Peter Cowgill, the Executive Chairman of JD Sports Fashion Plc
(the "Group"), the leading retailer of sports, fashion and outdoor
brands, will make the following trading statement to shareholders
attending its AGM today.
Trading Update
After the acquisitions in the year of DTLR Villa LLC in the
United States and Marketing Investment Group S.A. in Central
Europe, the Group now has approximately 3,300 stores across 29
countries. Substantially all of the stores are now trading although
we continue to experience some temporary closures in parts of the
Asia Pacific region.
In those markets across Europe where stores were closed in the
early part of the year we saw sales retention slightly ahead of
that seen in the first closure period in Spring 2020. Trading in
the immediate period after reopening was particularly encouraging
in the UK as both loyal and new consumers, seeking to refresh their
personal style as hospitality and workplaces began to reopen,
reacted positively to JD's innovative and exciting product mix.
Consistent with other retailers, store footfall remains fragile
with online traffic at elevated levels.
In the United States, a second round of fiscal stimulus was
introduced by the Federal Government in March. As with the first
round of fiscal stimulus last year, this was paid directly to
individuals as opposed to supporting the cost base of corporates.
As a consequence, this has resulted in enhanced levels of consumer
demand across all of our businesses. The JD fascia continues to
make positive progress in the United States with 60 stores now
trading following the opening of five new stores and the conversion
of a further six stores which previously traded as Finish Line. It
is still our intention to convert approximately 50 stores from
Finish Line to JD during the current financial year.
Government Support
A number of countries, including the UK, have offered further
support to corporates this year to help cover the fixed costs of
physical retail, including salaries, while stores have been unable
to trade. The Group accepted this support where it has been
offered, using it for the purposes intended. In particular,
payments from the Job Retention Scheme in the UK helped ensure that
the thousands of people that we employ continue to be supported and
have sustainable and long term employment prospects with our
business.
As has been the case throughout the period of the pandemic, our
priority remains the health and wellbeing of our global workforce.
We remain focussed on the long term future and ongoing expansion of
the Group and our ability to offer jobs and career development
opportunities to young people throughout our business continues to
be a key part of this strategy. The latest example of this is the
1,228 young people who we are currently recruiting across the UK on
the Government's Kickstart scheme. We are very proud to be involved
in such a positive initiative which provides employment
opportunities for young people who were previously on Universal
Credit and who faced significant barriers to employment as a result
of the pandemic.
We are cognisant that the retention of sales in the period when
the stores were closed combined with the positive trading in the
immediate period after reopening did help to offset the negative
financial impacts associated with the period of temporary closures.
However, we must also acknowledge that the uncertainty surrounding
COVID has not yet fully passed and the current resurgence in
infection rates is affecting our core customer demographic more
than was the case previously. Accordingly, we will consider
repaying government support on payroll costs which we have received
whilst stores have been temporarily closed during the current year.
We will defer a final decision on this until there is certainty on
both the full easing of restrictions and the consequences of any
further lockdowns during our peak trading period this Winter.
Update on Governance Matters
With regard to governance matters, we would like to clarify the
following points:
-- In conjunction with the Board's succession planning and to
strengthen the depth of the management team it is our intention to
divide the current role of Executive Chairman and CEO before the
next Annual General Meeting and a comprehensive process will
commence shortly.
-- We fully accept that the composition of our Board should
reflect the current scale, momentum and global positioning of the
Group as well as its increased level of market capitalisation. In
addition, the Board fully supports the initiatives driven by the
Hampton-Alexander Review and the Parker Review and acknowledges the
need to create additional diversity within its membership. We are
also mindful that certain Board members have served on the Board
for longer than the recommended period of tenure within the
Corporate Governance Code. The Board, therefore, recognises the
need to address its composition as soon as possible and have
invited the independent non-executive directors to commence the
selection process and make recommendations to the Nominations
Committee.
Updated Guidance
While we must recognise the risk of further temporary store
closures across our global estate and the potential repayment of
government support to payroll costs in the current year, we
presently believe that the Group is on track to deliver profit
before tax and exceptional items for the full year at an increased
level of no less than GBP550 million.
The Group will announce Interim Results for the period to 31
July 2021 on 14 September 2021.
Enquiries:
JD Sports Fashion Plc Tel: 0161 767 1000
Peter Cowgill, Executive Chairman
Neil Greenhalgh, Chief Financial Officer
Jennifer Iveson, Investor Relations
MHP Communications Tel: 0203 128 8788
Andrew Jaques
Giles Robinson
Charles Hirst
Catherine Chapman
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