JD Sports will keep pouring money into brand investment despite group sales falling 0.7% year-on-year to £5.89bn for the 26 weeks to 1 August 2026, down from £5.94bn. Like-for-like sales dropped 2.8%.

Gross margin came in at 46.8%, 20 basis points lower year-on-year, as controlled price investments were partially offset by higher marketing spend. The results were released on 23 September.

CEO Régis Schultz said the group had delivered a "resilient performance against a challenging backdrop of consumer cost-of-living pressures, footwear product cycle headwinds and a highly promotional market". He added that JD Sports "remained focused on controlling the controllables", pointing to progress in product, online and loyalty during the half.

New CMO takes charge of global brand strategy

Last week the retailer promoted Mike Grimes to group CMO. An 18-year veteran of the company, Grimes was most recently CMO for North America. He now leads global brand strategy and is tasked with implementing a "consistent vision" across markets while enabling local teams to connect with customers.

Grimes is also charged with strengthening the group's customer proposition by leveraging the scale of its brands, own-brand portfolio, customer insights and global brand partnerships.

Earlier this month, Schultz praised the new CMO's "extensive experience" within the business and "deep knowledge" of the markets JD Sports operates in, which he claimed will help deliver sustainable growth.

Grimes said he is excited to lead the next phase of the retailer's brand and marketing evolution to "further strengthen" the brand's "cultural relevance" and "curate compelling customer experiences".

Loyalty hits 10 million, online reaches 20% of sales

JD Sports expanded its product proposition over the half. Apparel and accessories accounted for 36% of group sales, while new ecommerce platforms launched in the UK and Ireland helped push online sales to 20% of total group sales.

The JD Status loyalty programme surpassed 10 million active customers globally. The group also "accelerated its shift" to AI, including deploying AI tools across marketing effectiveness metrics.

The retailer has long run a "brand first" element within its broader strategy, with brand awareness "continuing to grow". JD Sports claims a "deep, unrivalled understanding" of its core 16 to 24-year-old customer base.

In North America, strong online performance was driven by "focused marketing and controlled price investments", particularly in digital marketing, delivering organic online sales growth of 10.7%. Brand awareness in the US and Canada was strengthened by "sharper marketing activations", with the US brand strategy focused on JD's positioning at the "intersection of sport, performance, culture and lifestyle".

Social and AI on the roadmap

In June, digital director Nicola Burnett told Marketing Week the retailer is looking to drive the "omnichannel synergy" of digital and physical retail and reach incremental customers, particularly through its tie-up with Snapchat. During the 2025 Christmas season, the team used Snapchat's Promoted Places feature on Snap Maps across the UK and France, generating a 15-point lift in ad recall and 20% incremental reach in the UK.

Burnett said the company plans to increase investment in social and influencers, is actively exploring social commerce, and is examining how to show up in large language models.

Looking ahead, the group aims to continue investing in its customer proposition across marketing, digital and loyalty to "drive sales momentum and sharpen execution".