JD Sports continues Australia expansion with first Perth, Brisbane stores

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Jul 26, 2018

UK sportswear and accessories retailer JD Sports will open its debut Perth and Brisbane stores, in August and September, respectively, as it continues to push its physical store presence in Australia.

The JD Sports Perth store in Westfield Carousel will open on August 30 and the new store in Brisbane's city centre will open on September 20.

In April 2017, JD Sports was brought to Australia by local retail agent Hilton Seskin, whose Next Athleisure firm also brought out from the UK Topshop and Topman, which filed for administration only a few years after, before being rescued by parent company, Arcadia Group, effectively saving it from exiting the market.

However, JD Sports has exploded in Australia in the last twelve months and expanded rapidly on the continent, opening nine stores on the east coast, namely in bigger cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.

The opening in Perth will see the retailer enter the west coast of Australia for the first time, already a burgeoning online market for the brand, according to Seskin, since JD Sports launched its e-commerce platform in Australia upon entry.

“The move into Perth is highly anticipated as Western Australia has always interacted with the brand, even before we launched a physical store — it was actually the number one traffic location for online users prior to launch,” said local retail distributor, Hilton Seskin, in a statement.

Compared to fast-fashion and apparel, the sportswear retail market is relatively unsaturated in Australia, meaning big name international chains are starting to stake their claim via physical and online store debuts.

However, competition is heating up for JD Sports. France's Decathlon has since launched in Australia in December 2017, prompting local retailer Super Retail Group to rebranded its sporting brands Rebel Sport and Amart stores to simply Rebel last year.