British clothes and footwear retailer JD Sports reported total revenue growth of over 20% in the six weeks in the run up to Christmas which it said would help lift annual profit to the top end of a forecast range.
JD Sports, known for selling sought after products from sports brands Nike and Adidas, called the Christmas performance "impressive", and said its revenue growth over the autumn and winter was 10%, a pick-up from 5% levels earlier in the year.
Worries over inflation and rising bills had left retailers in Europe bracing themselves for a tough Christmas, but JD Sports and some other retailers have so far shown demand was resilient.
Clothes and homeware specialist Next said last week sales rose, while supermarket chains have all reported higher consumer spending.
With a market capitalisation of 7 billion pounds, JD is bigger than Britain's Marks & Spencer, which is worth 3 billion pounds, and Sainsbury's, which is worth 6 billion pounds, making it one of the country's most valuable listed retailers.
For the 12 months to the end of January JD Sports said its pretax profit before tax and exceptional items is expected to come in at the top end of the current range of 933 million pounds and 985 million pounds.
Looking further ahead, JD Sports, which employs over 67,000 people across more than 3,400 stores in Britain, Europe and North America, said it expected profits in its new financial year ended January 2024 to grow to just over 1 billion pounds.
