While JD Sports executives offered a lukewarm assessment of RFID technology as recently as mid-2023, the retailer has since signed a multiyear global software agreement with Checkpoint Systems, a provider of RF and RFID-based inventory management technology.
The British sportswear brand will deploy Checkpoint’s ItemOptix platform across its Sports Fashion Group stores, beginning in Europe, as part of a broader push to improve stock accuracy, replenishment signals and on-shelf availability. JD selected Checkpoint following a competitive evaluation, citing real-time inventory visibility and the ability to integrate RFID workflows directly into its existing store operations app via a software development kit.
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The rollout follows a pilot conducted in the second half of 2024 across five stores in the United Kingdom, France and Spain.
The first phase will bring more than 400 UK and Ireland stores live by year-end—a meaningful expansion, given the retailer operated roughly 444 brick-and-mortar locations in the region as of 2023. A broader European deployment is expected to reach nearly 1,000 stores by the end of 2026.
During the pilot, JD reported a 12 percent increase in on-shelf availability, a 20 percent improvement in restocking speed and a 95 percent increase in items located during inventory checks.
“We are very excited to take our partnership with Checkpoint to the next level over the coming months and years ahead,” said Daniel McGrath, JD Group’s head of customer operations, noting that both sides worked “in very short timelines” to scale the pilot.
For Checkpoint, the agreement represents another marquee client as retailers look to offset labor constraints, shrink and omnichannel complexity with better data. Plus, its distribution center tunnel solutions are already operational at JD’s UK distribution center in Rochdale. Installation is next slated for the retailer’s 646,000-square-foot facility in Heerle, the Netherlands—a GXO Logistics-operated hub serving Continental Europe—where the system can read up to 540,000 items per hour.
Sarabjeet Chhatwal, vice president of global software, described the deal as an endorsement of the platform’s ease of deployment and adaptability.
“JD choosing our ItemOptix Software Platform to be their software of choice for their RFID journey is yet another great endorsement from a retailer that our solution is what the market is looking for; a solution which is easy to use, easy to deploy, and easy to adapt,” he said.
The agreement comes as Checkpoint’s parent company, CCL Industries, reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results.
Fourth-quarter Checkpoint sales declined 6.2 percent to $260.2 million, reflecting an 8.1 percent organic decline partially offset by currency benefits. Operating income rose 5.9 percent to $42.9 million, expanding the margin 190 basis points to 16.5 percent.
For the full year, Checkpoint generated $1.01 billion in sales, up from $986.9 million in 2024, while operating income increased to $162.5 million from $150.9 million.
CCL reported total 2025 sales of $7.66 billion, up 5.8 percent year over year, with operating income rising 8.7 percent to $1.24 billion and free cash flow totaling $891.3 million.
“Checkpoint delivered improved profitability driven by cost savings and RFID gains in apparel markets despite lower sales,” Geoffrey Martin, CCL’s president and CEO, said in prepared remarks.
The JD rollout adds to Checkpoint’s expanding RFID footprint as retailers continue investing in inventory intelligence tools to stabilize store performance in a cautious consumer environment.
Checkpoint Systems, a global provider of RFID and RF technology solutions, was founded in 1969 and, by the mid-2000s, was known for its radio frequency technology expertise.
Today, as a technology-driven division of CLL Industries, Checkpoint’s focused on loss prevention and inventory management for the retail and apparel industries, operating as an end-to-end, vertically integrated RF/RFID solutions provider—reportedly as the retail world’s only one. As of late 2025, Checkpoint Systems operates major RFID manufacturing facilities in China and Mexico, with a combined annual production capacity of approximately 7.5 billion RFID inlays.
“Checkpoint’s supply chain relies significantly on components sourced from factories in Asia; therefore, supply disruption and tariff changes could adversely affect sales and profitability,” CCL said in its 2024 annual report. “Although Checkpoint enjoys the advantage of significantly lower customer concentration than the rest of the company, it remains heavily dependent on the retail marketplace.”
