The firm, which has the majority of its 850 stores in the UK but is expanding overseas in the Netherlands, Spain, France and Germany, has enjoyed strong demand for products such as branded trainers from the likes of Nike.

Prior to Friday's announcement analysts on average expected JD Sports to post a pretax profit of 110 million pounds, up from 100 million pounds in 2014/15.

In June the company said it had made a strong start in the first 19 weeks of its new financial year but did not give like-for-like sales figures.

It will publish first half results on Sept. 16.

(Reporting by Neil Maidment; editing by James Davey)