Signs of slowdown in the retail industry are now showing up at the sportswear giant, JJB Sports, in the steep decline of its half-year profits.
JJB sports posted a fall in its operating profits for the half-year ending 31 July, from £27.6m of last year to £18.1m this year. Even though JJB acknowledged that the pace of reduction in sales had decreased to 4.3% lately, its like-for-like sales were found to slip noticeably by 8.8%.
However, chief executive at the sports retailer, Tom Knight, said optimistically that England’s legibility for the next football World Cup was a silver lining in the company’s dark sales cloud.
Meanwhile, JJB chairman, Roger Lane-Smith confessed that he could not see many hopeful indications of an end to the present economic gloom, and said, “JJB, along with many other retailers, cannot escape the effects of what is clearly an economic downturn in the retail industry, which in turn leads to margin pressure as retailers seek to maintain market share.”
He added that he would adhere to business policies set by the founder, David Whelan, which included plans to set up additional supermarkets that would also offer health club facilities and provide products from top brands like Nike and Adidas besides other inexpensive range. Smith succeeded Whelan around the beginning of the year.
The sportswear chain that runs stores at more than 440 outlets, also notified that its sales had been additionally hit by revenue comparisons of last year’s summer, while it was riding high with robust replica sales of football kits at the Euro 2004 tournament. The absence of any prominent football tournament this year had affected replica sales sorely, what with around one-third of profit falls in its retail division being on account of the decrease of replica sales.
Posted
on : Thu, 13 Oct 2005 20:15 GMT | Business News
By : Anne Philips
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