JD Sports is paring back the footprint for its Hibbett athletic apparel chain, planning to close roughly 175 U.S. stores over the next three years to focus on bigger locations.
JD Sports, a British retailer, recently outlined its plans for Birmingham, Alabama-based Hibbett, which it acquired in 2024 for roughly $1.1 billion. When JD Sports purchased Hibbett, the retailer had about 1,200 stores, most clustered in the Southeast.
JD Sports was looking to expand in and get more traction in North America in the growing sports apparel sector, which includes sneakers. But now, nearly two years later, JD Sports is seeking to optimize its brick-and-mortar fleet for that chain, get rid of underperforming stores and be more selective about its locations.
"In terms of last year, you saw we closed 39 stores overall," Dominic Platt, JD Sports chief financial officer, said on the company's first-quarter earnings call last week. "We will see the beginning of the closure of the stores in North America with Hibbett, 175 stores probably over around three years."
The aim is to have "fewer, bigger, and better" stores to serve customers and to be more productive, according to Platt.
Smaller stores may have high sales density but not be very profitable, Régis Schultz, JD Sports CEO, said on the call.
"The problem of our small stores is that you need someone to open, you need someone to close," he said. "When sales [are] going down a little bit, you have no leverage, whereas with a larger store, you have leverage because you can invest in technology and all that stuff."
When it acquired Hibbett, JD Sports said the purchase would widely expand its presence in the Southeast. The company faces stiff competition from Dick's Sporting Goods, which acquired Foot Locker last year for $2.5 billion and has seen success with its large-format Dick's House of Sport stores.