Fashionable tracksuits help JD Sports trounce its enemy

THE fashion for stylish trainers and tracksuits has helped JD Sports profit jump 46pc – a new record – as it continues to trounce rival store Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct.

The trend, nicknamed ‘athleisure’ that started in the US with celebrities such as Beyonce and Kanye West, has seen fashion followers opt for sportswear – once only worn in the gym or for playing sport.

A return to 1990s fashions has also helped the sales of sportswear labels.

JD Sports sales for the year to January 30 climbed 20pc to £1.82bn, profit jumped 46pc to £132m and sales at stores open more than a year were up 12pc.

It is in stark contrast to rival chain Sports Direct which has issued a number of profit warnings in the past year.

Chief executive Peter Cowgill said: ‘The trend has been moving in our favour. The athletic footwear trend has been growing for some time.’

Cowgill said products from nike, Adidas, Fred Perry and Asics as well as Pink Soda in womenswear had boosted sales.

He added: ‘We provide the best names and the best ranges. When a brand has a new range or a new innovation we are the first place that gets this product.’

JD, which also owns outdoor chains Blacks and Millet, has previously suffered from slower growth at these chains but Cowgill said each of its businesses were now ‘firing on all cylinders’.

Cowgill said the group was also protected if the trends changed and the fashion moved away from sportswear. He said: ‘We can be flexible. We can adjust.’

JD has been expanding internationally and opened 38 JD shops across Europe.

It also opened its first JD outside Europe at Sunway Pyramid in Kuala Lumpur. The store has been opened under a joint venture with Malaysia’s Stream Enterprise.

The group has 918 stores in total and 361 JD shops in the UK and 103 in Europe.

Analyst Peter Smedley at broker Panmure Gordon said its ‘pronounced strength in branded athletic footwear over the past two to three years has unequivocally spilled over into clothing’.

He rated it a buy because of the ‘continuation of JD’s impressively strong financial track record over the past ten years under the current management team’.

JD’s success is in contrast to its rival led by billionaire Ashley, whose Sports Direct has focused on cheaper brands and a ‘pile it high and sell it cheap’ store lay out.

JD’s final dividend of 6.2p brings the total dividend to 7.4p up 5pc on the previous year.

The company’s shares rose 2.7pc or 32p to 1193p. Sports Direct edged up 0.3pc or 1.3p to 397.3p.