Profits at JD Sports are expected to pass £1bn after the fashion giant celebrates a record year.
The Greater Manchester-headquartered company is forecasting pre-tax profits of £1.03bn for the 12 months to February 3, 2024.
That comes after the business posted profits of £991.4m, before tax and adjusted items, for its latest financial year to January 28, 2023, up from £947.2m.
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JD Sports racked up £550.5m in costs associated with acquisitions, the divestment of Footaslyum and its withdrawn from South Korea as well as the restructuring of Spodis SA.
Its revenue also increased from £8.56bn to £10.12bn over the same period.
Chairman Andrew Higginson said: "In July 2022 I had the great privilege of being appointed the chair of the JD Group.
"This followed the departure of Peter Cowgill who had led the business so successfully for the previous 18 years.
"I found a business that had a strong leadership team, committed staff and a supportive majority shareholder in Pentland.
"The business was in tune with its customers, respected by its branded suppliers, was trading strongly and had a significant number of opportunities for growth ahead of it.
"This has been another period of excellent progress for the group with a profit before tax and adjusted items for the 52 week period ended 28 January 2023 of £991.4m (52 week period ended 29 January 2022: £947.2m).
"This is a record result for the group and I must pay tribute to the skills, resilience and positive attitude of the colleagues in our businesses who have not let the leadership changes distract from their focus on the consumer and our offer. The total charge for the adjusted items was £550.5m (2022: £292.5m) which principally relates to a non-cash movement in the present value of future put and call options held with minority shareholders in certain subsidiary businesses, impairments of intangible assets on acquisitions in prior periods and losses incurred in divesting our non-core branded fashion businesses.
"Consequently, the profit before tax was £440.9m (2022: £654.7 million).
"The progress that the group is making in its global markets is reflected by the fact that organic sales at constant exchange rates were 12% ahead of the prior period with a significant strengthening in trade through the second half of the period, particularly in North America, as the supply of product from a number of the international brands normalised.
"We are pleased with the positive progress that we are making in North America and it is our intention to accelerate the rollout of JD in this important market as we believe it will deliver long term sustainable benefits.
"JD continues to be the partner of choice for many international brands who see our premium fascias as the natural global home for their latest ranges and freshest new styles.
"The announcement in September 2022 that JD was Nike's first European retail partner for its connected partnership, designed to enhance the shopping experience of customers through access to an additional range of Nike member-exclusive products and experiences, is proof that our relationship with these brands and our access to product is stronger than ever.
"The group is reassured with trading to date in the new financial period with growth in organic sales at constant exchange rates of more than 15% after 13 weeks.
"This performance is further evidence that consumers worldwide are more attracted than ever to JD's differentiated proposition with its attention-grabbing in-store experience, breadth in the range of brands and availability of key styles.
"Whilst we are encouraged by the resilient nature of the consumer demand in the current period to date, we remain conscious of the headwinds that prevail at this time including the general global macro-economic and geopolitical situation.
"Against this backdrop, assuming current exchange rates, we expect that the group's headline profit before tax and adjusted items for the 53 week period ending 3 February 2024 will be in line with the current average consensus expectations of £1.03bn."
In January this year JD Sports revealed it had been hit by a cyber attack. The group said the incident resulted in the unauthorised access to a system that contained customer data relating to some online orders placed between November 2018 and October 2020.
The group has now confirmed that the UK's Information Commissioner's Office will not be taking any enforcement action "although they have highlighted several areas where they believe JD needs to demonstrate improvement".
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