The athleisure king JD Sports shows how partnering with heavyweight brands can turbocharge a retailer’s expansion. Frasers, the owner of Sports Direct, is applying a similar game plan to a market beyond trainers and tracksuits.
Frasers, part of the FTSE 100, posted a 4 per cent rise in organic revenue over the six months to the end of October and adjusted pre-tax profits were up 39 per cent to £267 million. Guidance for adjusted pre-tax profit this year has been kept at £450 million to £500 million.
Not surprisingly, for a business rapidly changing shape, that profit figure included several parts that could be regarded exceptional: £91 million from store disposals and just over a £26 million benefit from the sale of the US
