Sporting prowess

JD Sports is continuing to fly the flag for fashionable sports and leisure wear on the high street

Published: 01 June, 2007

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Fashionable and exclusive brands have been key to the success of JD Sports - one of today's most recognised stores in the UK's towns and cities.

The retailer, part of the John David Group, is well positioned in the UK having developed a reputation as the most innovative visual merchandiser of sportswear with the most exclusive and stylish ranges.

Chairman Peter Cowgill explains: "We position ourselves into sports leisurewear so we think we have the best brands and the best segments of the brands which occupy that position in the market. So sometimes when we talk about fashion at JD it will be brands such as Fred Perry, Lacoste, Timberland and Rivington. They are deemed to be the fashion."

In brand terms there are three key areas the company focuses on. Firstly, is the core brands of the business, such as Adidas and Nike. "We get the latest models and technologies and advanced models," explains Cowgill. "We have special make-up models with the two major brands to ensure we are edgy and at the top end."

The second part is the current trendy brands, which may be hotter one year than the next, such as Puma, Ellesse and Ben Sherman. And finally are the brands which are exclusive to JD, such as McKenzie. "These brands are exclusive to us and associated with the JD brand," he explains. "They are seen to be hot in the high street and they are sought after brands."

Scotts, which is a subsidiary of the company, sells fashion brands such as Ted Baker, Henri Lloyd and Teddy Smith, and can be found more commonly in the north of England. "We find that particularly leisurewear brands, as opposed to sportswear brands, tend to flourish perhaps more in the northern regions than in the south," says Cowgill, who aligns Scotts with retailers such as Republic and Bank.

"We have undertaken a property rationalisation programme for Scotts and we now have a store portfolio we are happy with and we are focusing, as we have done with JD, on increasing the profitability of those stores," says Cowgill. "Once we have done that we will roll out more stores."

Meanwhile, there has been a key momentum going over the last couple of years to rationalise the store portfolio of JD Sports, getting rid of loss-making stores and taking out duplicate stores where there are two stores on the same high street. "We are now looking at expansion possibilities," says Cowgill. "We are looking for opportunities to open stores in places that meet our appraisal criteria and we will take advantage of them as they come up. That could be in any area. We are always looking all the time for new opportunities and we hold a property meeting every week.

"We are also looking at one or two select opportunities with Scotts."

There are currently 359 JD stores across the UK with over 70 of those being retained All Sports stores, which JD took over in 2005. After a disappointing performace at the outset, these stores were rebranded to JD Sports and their subsequent performance has improved.

One of JD's newest store openings is at the newly-opened Grand Arcade in Wigan and Cowgill says JD is very complementary to other familiar retail brands, which shopping centres like to line it up alongside, such as Oasis, Zara, Topshop and Jane Norman.

"They put us in that line-up," says Cowgill, "because they see us as being a more aspirational representation of the sports leisurewear market."