In its half-year results for the 26 weeks to 26 July 2009, sales were down 42.5%, from £310.4m to £178.6m. Its first-half losses were even gloomier reading, having extended 173%, from £15.5m to £42.3m.
JJB chairman Sir David Jones last week announced his intention to move the brand upmarket. To do this, he outlined plans to improve the layout of its 250 UK JJB-branded stores, making ranges from sports fashion brands such as Nike and Adidas more prominent. It will also begin discontinuing more downmarket brands, replacing them with internally-developed own brands.
A spokesman for JJB said: ‘The goal is to raise the quality of stock, rather than just being perceived as a discount store.'
While Jones clearly hopes the strategy will boost sales, it also illustrates how the retailer is trying to differentiate itself from rival Sports Direct, which is widely viewed as a discounter.
Sarah Peters a retail analyst at Verdict Research believes it will be difficult for JJB to reposition. ‘With everything the company has gone through, it should probably look at improving other areas of the business before repositioning.'
However, she admits that JJB has been suffering a lack of identity, in many consumers' minds sandwiched between Sports Direct and JD Sports. ‘At the one end you have Sports Direct, a discounter retailer, but at the other you have JD Sports, which is now very strong in fashionable sportswear. Then you have JJB, stuck in the middle with no distinctive stand-out.'
Moving the brand upmarket would place JJB into direct competition with JD Sports, although the latter now concentrates purely on fashion sportswear, rather than equipment. In the 26 weeks to 1 August 2009, JD Sports continued to flex its muscles, its sales rising from £298.8m to £323.9m, an increase of 8.4%.
‘The Sports fascias remain the core of group profitability,' said Peter Cowgill, executive chairman of JD Sports when its half-year results were announced last week. ‘Their strength lies in our unique blend of sports and fashion brands, the strong brand relationships, which allow us to develop exclusive products, and our exclusive own brands and superior visual merchandising. We believe these strengths will benefit us as we look to further develop the potential in the [French] Chausport business in 2010.'
With JD Sports looking likely to continue its good run, it will continue with its store refurbishment programme and the opening of new stores. JJB has fallen behind dramatically, and must be hoping its repositioning has an immediate impact.