Major high street chain closes store forever - 40 years on high street
JD Sports has announced the final store closures as one of its fashion brands leaves the high street for good. Hip, owned by the renowned sports brand, is closing its Manchester location at 63 Thomas Street today, followed by its Leeds branch on Vicar Lane by the end of the month.
The Leeds site will be taken over by fashion chain Size?, also owned by the JD Sports group. Hip will move to exclusively online operations after its last two physical shops are shuttered after 40 years.
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It originally opened in 1987 in Thorntons Arcade, Leeds, founded by Everton Campbell. JD Sports Fashion acquired the business in 2014 after looking for investment.
The new closures come as JD Sports faces financial pressures, already shutting 24 stores earlier this year amid declining annual earnings.
The company, which operates over 4,000 outlets globally, has outlined a strategy to slash its physical retail footprint in favour of "fewer, bigger and better shops".
Speaking to MEN in May, JD said: "Over time, the potential future impacts of heightened uncertainty may contribute to direct cost pressures, including energy and fuel costs across our store and logistics networks."
It said conflict in the Middle East could drive up costs and reduce consumer demand, though it maintained there had been no "direct exposure", just "heightened uncertainty".
It was now forecasting a pre-tax profit of between £750 million and £850 million for the current fiscal year, which would mark a decline from the £852 million pre-tax profit that the company made for the year to the end of January 2026.
That figure was down 6.4% compared with the previous tax year. Total organic sales for the group, which excludes the impact of acquisitions, rose by 2.1% year on year to £12.66 billion.
However, in the UK, organic sales dropped by 2.5%, and sales on a like-for-like basis fell by 3.9%, which JD blamed on a “tough consumer backdrop”.