Hibbett Sports owner plans to close 175 US stores – Business News
Hibbett Sports will close 175 stores across the U.S. over the following three years as its mother or father company, JD Sports, seems to be to reorganize its footprint.
JD Sports acquired Hibbett in 2024 in a deal valued at round $1.1 billion, with the acquisition considered as enhancing JD’s presence within the North American footwear market. Hibbett had 1,169 stores in 36 states as of May 2024, in accordance to the press release for the deal.
Now, the company is shifting to scale back its store rely as half of a cost-cutting strategy.
JD Sports CEO Regis Schultz mentioned on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call that its “second key strategic initiative is driving store productivity and optimization of our store estate. Our net store movement last year was a reduction of 39 stores, demonstrating our fewer, bigger, and better store strategy.”
“In North America, we will leverage group best practice to optimize EBIT store footprint and profitability. As part of this, we will close around 170 underperforming EBIT stores over the next three years,” Schultz added.
Hibbett Sports will shutter 175 stores throughout the U.S. over the following three years. Bloomberg through Getty Images
JD mentioned that in the beginning of its fiscal yr in February 2025, there have been 999 Hibbett stores and that determine declined to a whole of 982 when its fiscal yr resulted in January 2026 because the group consolidated its operations after the Hibbett acquisition.
JD’s CFO Dominic Platt added that the group is planning to open about 20 new JD stores in addition to changing between 70 to 80 Finish Line stores to JD places in North America.
After factoring in JD Sports’ plans in Europe, the group expects its whole store rely to “stay broadly flat for the year,” Platt mentioned.
JD Sports CEO Regis Schultz mentioned closures are half of a “fewer, bigger, and better store strategy.” Bloomberg through Getty Images
JD Sports’ stock is down about 1.7% yr to date and is round 1.8% larger during the last yr.
The information comes as Hibbett’s retail footwear rival, Foot Locker, introduced store closure plans final November following its $2.4 billion acquisition by Dick’s Sporting Goods in September 2025.
The company didn’t specify how many Foot Locker places would close, although 9 Dick’s places closed in 2025, together with about 11 Foot Locker-owned stores and 4 licensed stores.
