JD Sports Fashion has today raised its annual profit forecast ahead of market expectations, benefiting from robust holiday demand and as US consumers spent more on clothes.
Britain's biggest sportswear retailer, which sells brands such as Nike, Adidas and Puma, expects headline pretax profit of at least £875m for the year to January 29.
This is ahead of current market expectations of £810m.
It had earlier forecast annual headline pretax profit of at least £750m.
The London-listed enterprise has been expanding abroad since it set up a Malaysian joint venture in 2015, a trend that continued during the pandemic as it bought major fashion and footwear retailers in the US and Europe.
JD Sports said its profit for the financial year ending January 2023 is expected to be in line with the current year, as it looks to mitigate supply chain issues and the impact from Covid-19 restrictions.
The company said the US government's fiscal stimulus in the first half of 2021 might have contributed up to £100m to its fiscal 2022 earnings.
