JD Sports chief executive officer Régis Schultz told analysts on the company’s fourth quarter conference call on Thursday that the company is continuing to optimize its store fleet in North America by converting and closing more locations.
While Schultz has been vocal about his plans for the Finish Line banner, which involves converting all physical locations to the JD banner except for shop-in-shops at Macy’s, the CEO hasn’t said much about Hibbett, the Alabama-based retailer the company acquired in 2024 in a deal valued at $1.11 billion.
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Now, future plans for the Hibbett banner are coming into focus. Schultz noted on Thursday’s call that the company incurred store impairment charges of 28 million pounds in fiscal 2026 related to the optimization of the Hibbett store portfolio.
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“We continue to maintain a disciplined focus on store productivity, with actions taken to close smaller stores in underperforming locations and prioritize new larger stores in locations with stronger sale productivity potential,” the CEO said.
This means JD will be shuttering lower volume, remote stores that carry a legacy sporting goods offer, which are “not aligned with the group’s strategy,” Schultz noted.
And this “optimization” has already begun. As of Feb. 1, 2025, at the start of fiscal 2026, there were 999 Hibbett locations. By Jan. 31, 2026, at the end of the fiscal year, JD noted it had 982 Hibbett stores in its portfolio with 61 closures and 44 new locations.
Looking ahead, Schultz told investors that in fiscal 2027, the company will be commencing a program to raise Hibbett’s sales productivity by further optimizing its store footprint. “We will see the beginning of the closure of the stores in North America with Hibbett, 175 stores probably at around three years,” he noted on the call.
This comes after JD Sports Fashion reported that net sales grew 10.5 percent to 12.7 billion pounds in fiscal 2026, up from 11.5 billion pounds in fiscal 2025. Profit before tax and adjusting items fell 7.7 percent to 852 million pounds, down from 923 million pounds the prior year.
Footwear sales were flat for the year, though apparel sales rose 5 percent.
“We delivered a resilient performance, achieving organic sales growth of 2.1 percent despite tough market conditions,” Schultz said. “Our deep understanding of our customers and lifestyle trends give us a clear view of how they want to shop and spend, allowing us to consistently deliver the right products, in the right places and at the right prices.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said he expects “muted market growth” in fiscal 2027. As such, the company is forecasting organic sales to be flat year-over-year in 2027 with like-for-like sales to be down 2.3 percent. Profit before tax and adjusting items in 2027 is expected to be between 750 million pounds to 850 million pounds.
“We remain confident in JD Group’s medium‑term trajectory, underpinned by our strong brand partnerships and agile, multi‑brand model,” Schultz noted. “For the year ahead we are focused on further enhancing and optimizing our product offer, customer experience and store footprint, and delivering strong cost and cash discipline – in essence, ‘controlling the controllables’.”