JD Sports has reiterated its full-year guidance after its profit dropped by 12% year-on-year in the six months to 2 August.

The sports fashion retailer reported in its interim results that its revenue increased by 20% to £5.94bn, driven by the acquisitions of Hibbett and Courir in North America and Europe respectively, while its operating profit fell by 6.3% to £369m.

In the six months to 2 August, the firm opened 42 net new stores, including flagships stores in Las Vegas, Vancouver, Melbourne and its largest store in Manchester’s Trafford Centre.

Chief executive officer at JD Sports Fashion, Régis Schultz, said the firm’s performance in a challenging market "demonstrates the resilience" of the business, which has been underpinned by its "agile multi-brand model, broad geographic reach and unmatched connection with customers".

He added: "Our supply chain investments are poised to unlock significant efficiencies across our global network. Our new European distribution centre in Heerlen, the Netherlands, is set to launch automation for JD Europe store replenishment in the coming weeks, while our US west coast site in Morgan Hill is set to go live with JD and Finish Line by year-end - the next step of our plan to leverage our distribution centres on a multi-fascia basis."

As part of its interim results announcement, JD Sports reiterated its guidance for the full-year, as set out in its trading update last month.

While stating that it remains cautious on the trading environment for the second half of year, it expects its profit before tax to be in the range of between £853m and £914m.

JD Sports is continuing to monitor the potential impact of US tariffs but said that at this time, it expects the impact on the current financial year to be limited.

Following the interim results announcement, shares in JD Sports fell slightly by 1.5%.

Equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, Aarin Chiekrie, said that while its first-half performance was broadly as expected, its sales do not tell the true story, while growth being fuelled by its acquisitions in the previous financial year.

He concluded: "Trading across Europe and the UK remains weak, especially in the latter. Year-on-year numbers have come up against some tough comparables, with last year’s sales getting a foot up from the men’s 2024 Euros. The outlook for the UK remains underwhelming, with recent changes to employer taxes and minimum wages bringing a handful of extra costs and challenges.

"Across the pond, recent acquisitions cemented the US as the group’s largest region by sales. A shift of focus from expansion to raising brand awareness and squeezing the most out of its existing store footprint is a welcome one, and while like-for-like sales are still in negative territory, there are early signs that sales trends are improving."

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