British sportswear firm JD Sports Fashion posted a 73 per cent jump in first-half pretax profit on Tuesday, led by a strong performance in its sports fashion business.

The firm, which has most of its 900 stores in the UK but is expanding in the Netherlands, Spain, France and Germany, said pretax profit for the 26 weeks to July 30th grew to £77.4 million (€91.8 million) from £44.7 million a year ago.

Underlying sales at its core sports fashion business rose by about 10 per cent in the same period.

Revenue for the period grew 20 per cent to £970.6 million.

Reuters