Don’t hike the cost of labour any more, JD Sports boss tells Reeves as he warns over rising unemployment

JD Sports said it remains ‘cautious’ about the months ahead as unemployment heads ‘in the wrong direction’.

The High Street chain reported a 2.5 per cent slide in sales in the six months to the start of August, with a 3.3 per cent decline in the UK underlining the pressure on shoppers as rising living costs take their toll.

Boss Regis Schultz told investors he is ‘cautious’ about trading in the second half of the financial year due to ‘continued pressure on consumer finances [and] elevated unemployment risk’.

He urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves not to increase the cost of giving people jobs as unemployment was already ‘going in the wrong direction’.

‘Don’t increase the cost of labour. Make sure that we keep competitive, keep the UK competitive in the world,’ he told The Times.

Sales at JD, which operates in North America, Europe and Asia as well as the UK, totalled £5.94billion in the half while profits fell 13.5 per cent to £351million.

Feeling the pinch: JD Sports boss Regis Schultz told investors he is ‘cautious’ about trading in the second half of the financial year due to ‘continued pressure on consumer finances’

While business in Britain was dented by ‘tough comparatives’ on a year earlier when football shirt sales were boosted by Euro 2024, revenue in North America fell 3.8 per cent.

But the impact of Donald Trump’s trade tariffs looked set to be ‘limited’. 

The FTSE 100-listed firm declared an interim dividend of 0.33p a share and said the second £100million share buyback announced recently will begin soon. 

Shares fell 0.7 per cent, or 0.66p, to 87.94p, having fallen almost 43 per cent in the past year.

Garry White, investment commentator at Charles Stanley, said: ‘It’s going to be a tricky second half. The backdrop is not improving, it’s probably getting worse.

‘Consumers are cautious, especially in the UK. To add to sticky inflation and a slowing economy, they face the unknown of Rachel Reeves’s Budget, where tax rises look a certainty.’

Nike products make up about 45 per cent of sales and recent problems at the US giant have taken a toll. 

But JD finance chief Dominic Platt said Nike was now doing ‘all the right things’ to revive demand.

Under chief executive Elliott Hill, who returned to Nike as chief executive last year, it is investing in its running shoes to reclaim lost ground.

‘We think Nike is doing all the right things in terms of resetting,’ said Platt, who added that its new products had been ‘resonating well’ with customers.

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