JD Sports Fashion forecast annual profit at the higher end of expectations on Monday as Britain's biggest sportswear retailer refused to cut prices in a tough retail environment.
“Gross profit margins have been maintained at prior year levels as we continue with our policy not to enter into short-term reactive discounting unnecessarily,” JD said.
The company's comments come as rival Footasylum said last week it had to cut prices after disappointing Christmas trading. Mike Ashley of Sports Direct, another competitor, said last month that trading in November was "unbelievably bad".
JD Sports's total like-for-like sales grew more than five per cent across its global stores, excluding recent acquisitions in the United States and Spain, for the 48-week period to January 5th.
There was a “consistently positive like-for-like performance across Black Friday and the Christmas period”, the company said.
JD Sports said it expects full-year headline profit before tax to come in at the higher end of a range between £325 million (€365 million) and £352 million. – Reuters
