It’s fair to say that when JD Sports goes, it goes big.

After several years when U.K. sports and fashion retailer JD Sports could just not stop expanding, the Hibbett-owner is switching lanes from the 100 metres to long distance running as CEO Régis Schultz consolidates on what has been a remarkable rise in the U.S. and internationally.

Usain Bolt was the guest of honor as JD Sports opened its largest store to date down the road from its Manchester headquarters in north west England at the weekend, but it is the U.S. which is now the company’s biggest market.

And while many British brands have stumbled as they attempted to win over American consumers, JD Sports has hardly put a foot wrong since making its first acquisition and in just a few short years it now leads the pack.

“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 now have a business of $6 billion annually,” Schultz said. “We built a business that came from nothing to be bigger than the market leader.”

He believes that many rivals focused too heavily online and stopped investing in their stores, a trend accelerated by the pandemic, which allowed JD Sports to bring something different as “the new kids on the block, bringing, modernity and something fresh and with a different proposition, with a bigger apparel section.”

Footwear only stores missed out on the lifestyle opportunity and the consumer desire to mix and match different brands, he stressed.

JD Sports U.S. Expansion

North America is now JD’s largest market, with a mix of fascias depending on where the company sees the best brand resonance. The company has nearly 350 JD Sports rebranded storefronts and around 257 stores still branded as Finish Line, plus 256 concessions in Macy’s.

The billion dollar acquisition of Alabama-based Hibbett added 1.169 stores across 36 states but the strength of the brand domestically means it will retain its fascia.

“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 to JD, plus opening new stores,” Schultz said.

It is anticipated to hit a global profit before tax of $1.25 billion and JD now has nearly 4,900 stores worldwide, including in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Italy, Australia, Spain and Portugal.

The differing brand approach reflects how JD Sports sees its most effective connection with the consumer after the U.S. team from Finish Line saw something that made JD Sports different and decided to push for a change of brand.

“This is quite rare, and I think it will be a business case in 10 years time, having the guts to do it. And they did it, and very well,” Schultz reflected.

As a result, the Finish Line name will only remain at Macy’s, where it attracts a different customer who is typically a little older and more biased towards females. Indeed, national coverage also comes with demographic nuances, with Shoe Palace connecting on the west coast and in the south with Hispanic customers and the apparel ranges at DTLR focused more on black American shoppers, especially around basketball culture.

JD Sports Leverages Stores

“A key learning is a strong back office, we are leveraging the back office in the U.S. for finance and HR, and through the acquisitions have introduced a strong discipline to deliver more than $25 million of synergies that we plan mostly around logistics. We were at capacity in Indianapolis, so we invested in a new warehouse, so now we are west coast, south and Midwest. We have five years of capacity, whereas we were at max when we made the acquisition, and it gives us to the ability to deliver better service,” he said, stressing that the key for online delivery is stores.

“It is the best model, especially in the U.S., it’s cheaper to fulfil from store. Unless you are Amazon, with a warehouse in every town, leveraging your store is a much better model, much more efficient, because it increases your stock turn in your store,” he said.

“It increases your ability to sell, it’s a win, win. And we believe that the best proposition for the consumer. What we’re seeing is that it’s the only channel position where they can go in store, they can come pick up in store, they can receive from online.”

The U.S. has not been a happy hunting ground for many established U.K. retailers, and Schutlz puts JD Sports’ success in part down to choosing acquisitions for expansion and having a U.S. management team. In addition, he points out that trends in fashion and sports are global.

“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 [the mall location of its new flagship in Manchester] 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 merchandizer, 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,” he said.

JD Sports Trafford Centre

While most stores will not be at the scale of the Manchester flagship, he believes that some of the digital elements, the differentiation between the male section and the female section, plus new checkouts, may well influence new stores, although domestic store expansion has largely reached maturity.

“I want to make sure that we continue to have the best stories possible, and it will be bigger and better,” the JD Sports boss said. “I think that size matters in a world where omnichannel is important, the store experience needs to be an experience. And if you are in a bigger store, you get a better experience. You also have more product, more availability. We have 35,000 pair of shoes in the store. So it’s highly likely that you will find the shoes that you want to take away right away,” he stressed.