JD Sports ahead of the game after a cracking Christmas

By NICK GOODWAY FOR MAILONLINE
Updated: 05:43 EST, 9 January 2009

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JD Sports Fashion continued this week's better-than-expected string of Christmas trading reports from the High Street today - and went one better.

The company told investors that, having spurned its rivals' decisions to launch their sales well before the traditional date of Boxing Day, it had not only maintained its profit margin but also increased underlying sales by 2.8 per cent.

In fact so good were things for JD it now expects profits for the year that closes at the end of this month will be 'marginally' ahead of the City's expectations.

Good form: But the traditional sports outlets fared less well than those concentrating on fashion

The best sales growth came from the stores that concentrate on fashion.

They were up 12.5 per cent in the five weeks to 3 January while the traditional sports outlets scored 1 per cent growth.

JD shares shot up 25p to 230p. Continuing the upbeat theme, camera retailer Jessops said it had a strong Christmas with like-for-like sales up 3.1 per cent in the five-week period.

However, that still left underlying sales for the first quarter of its financial year (October-December) down by 5.6 per cent.

But further down the High Street not everything was quite so rosy.

Johnson Service Group ,which includes the Johnson and Jeeves of Belgravia dry-cleaning chains, said demand had picked up in the early autumn but had tailed off rapidly as consumers cut back on shopping trips.

That left like-for-like sales in the second half down 3.9 per cent, prompting a £4million cost-cutting regime.

Another part of Johnson supplies property management to other retailers and is suffering, although its textile rental business is doing fine, so overall 2008 profits will still be in line with City forecasts.

Meanwhile, The Real Hotel Group, which runs 55 Purple, Quality, Comfort and Clarion outlets, said that in the final quarter of 2008 it had seen a dramatic 25 per cent slump in revenues from its UK hotels.