£700,000 JD stock looted in UK riots
UK sportswear retailer JD Sports Fashion has said that £700,000 of stock was looted during the riots across England in August 2011, while one of its stores in London has yet to reopen after suffering fire damage.
A total of 16 stores in London, Nottingham, Manchester and Birmingham were hit by the disorder, with six in London suffering "very significant thefts".
Its losses would have been worse if not for the pre-emptive measures it took to stop looters gaining access to its stores, it said.
A JD store in London is still closed as fire damage is repaired but the rest of the stores were reopened by August 21.
Despite the effect of the riots and store closures, the chain said like-for-like sales excluding VAT increased by 1.6% in seven weeks to September 17.
However, it also revealed that underlying pre-tax profits declined 17% to £16 million in the half year to July 30.
The group said its performance was "excellent" given the ongoing pressure on profit margins from rising costs.
