MAPIC Retail Interview : JD Sports
UK sports and fashion retailer JD Sports recently opened its largest flagship store yet, close to its Manchester headquarters at the Trafford Centre mall. JD now has nearly 4,900 stores worldwide, including in the US. Canada, UK, France, Italy, Australia, Spain and Portugal.
Although it only entered the US market in 2018 with the acquisition of Finish Line, the company is now market leader in its segment and last year completed the billion dollar acquisition of Alabama-based Hibbett and added 1,169 stores across 36 states.
MAPIC: Tell us a little about what’s happening at JD Sports
Régis Schultz: North America is now JD’s largest market and the company has nearly 350 JD Sports branded storefronts and around 257 stores still branded as Finish Line, plus 256 concessions in Macy’s. We also own Hibbett, Shoe Palace and DTLR. We bought Courir in November 2024, which added 306 stores across six European countries, along with 35 franchise stores in nine additional countries and as a result JD has strengthened its position in France and plans to leverage its strong presence in Spain and Italy to accelerate Courir’s expansion.
Régis Schultz, CEO of JD Sports
MAPIC: How does the new flagship reflect your store strategy?
Régis Schultz: We keep evolving. We are not fixed on one model, and we keep what is great. Every store is the opportunity to do something different and at Trafford Centre we can put all the brands that we dream of in the store, because it’s near, it’s 15 minutes from our offices, so let’s give the opportunity for the buyer, for the merchandiser, for the property guy, for the concept guy, to have something which is too big. Being too big means that you can test new products. You can test new brands. And that is really the idea behind the store.
This is where the department store gets it wrong. When you go to the department store now they say, ‘Oh, if you want size 12, you can buy that online’. But that makes a big difference, if you still go to the store it’s to get a service that online cannot do, and one of the things that online will never be able to do is to give the consumer the stock right away.
JD Sports flagship
MAPIC: What are your main objectives for your stores?
Régis Schultz: In the US, we will be continuing to convert our runway for the coming five years, continuing to convert Finish Line stores. There are still over 200 stores to convert over to JD, plus opening new stores. It has been a fantastic story for us. In 2018 we bought Finish Line and we turned around this business. We bought Shoe Palace, DTLR and Hibbett and it is now a great business of $6 billion annually. We built a business that came from nothing to be bigger than the market leader.
In the UK and Europe we will continue to invest in our stores. That’s what programs we have launched this year, because I want to make sure that we continue to have the best stores possible, and it will be bigger, better. I think that size matters, especially in a world where omnichannel is important, the store experience needs to be an experience. And whatever you want, if you are in a bigger store, you get a better experience.
