Well, good afternoon. We'll be testing you on that later. My name's Andy Higginson. I'm the Chair of JD Sports, and delighted to welcome you here this afternoon to our capital markets day. I joined in July last year, and whilst there are many people who have claim to the title, my kids are ecstatic that I am the king of trainers. Anyway, the objective today is for you to hear from our new CEO and from the senior team here. They're all here, and we're excited about the prospects ahead for the business over the next few years. The opportunity, of course, is one thing, delivering it is another.
There's no certainty, of course, and you'll have to judge the probability of the team delivering that growth over time, as you get to know them. The business has achieved a remarkable growth over the last 20 years, and the board are very fortunate to have inherited the current position from the previous team, led by Peter Cowgill, of course, and Neil Greenhalgh, who's here today, and others. Most of the key players from that team are of course still here, and they are the cornerstone of the new team, and we're blessed with a very strong cadre of senior leaders, and I look forward to you getting to know them over time. The changes at the top with Peter leaving, Régis and I joining, were rooted in a governance deficit within the firm.
Today isn't about that, but I should say that we are well on with a program of reforming and strengthening our governance framework. Some things of those will be very visible to you. Obviously, we now have separated the role of chair and chief executive. The developers and had approved... Sorry, we developed and had approved a new REM policy. It's much more equity-based as you as and follows best practice. Régis' vision has brought forward a revamp of the strategy, which you're gonna hear more of in a minute. It's brought clarity, I think, and some focus, and you've obviously seen the announcement around the disposal of our numerous small fashion businesses, which is part of that strategic rethink and reset that he's leading.
We've also had a big program internally of formalizing controls, and we're going to strengthen the board, with more PLC experience coming on, in the form of non-execs as well to complement the very strong team we already have. That's all in hand, with the, and will help with the foundations for growth that Régis is going to now outline for you. As I say, all of that governance stuff is not for today, but I want you to be reassured that we are on with that as well. It would be remiss of me not to mention it. That's it from me. We're gonna hand over to Régis now, who will take you through, the business side of things and the opportunities ahead. Régis.
Thank you. Thank you, Andy, and thank you for the board for giving me the opportunity to lead JD. I think it's a fantastic business. You know, I spent the first six months to try to understand the business and really spending time to understand this GBP 10 billion, GBP 1 billion profit business. 3,500 store in the world, a third in U.K., a third in U.S., a third in Europe. It's a business where we are successful and profitable in Europe, in Spain, in France, in Italy, in Germany. Profitable and successful in U.S. with three brands, Finish Line and JD, with Shoe Palace and with DTLR. Successful in Australia. I think that we have the guy that is running Australia for us, this is a business that was...
We start from scratch five years ago, now we are number one of the market. It give you the strength and the power of the brand and what we have achieved in the last time. I think that I spent six months to listen, to learn from the people from the business, there is incredible people in the business and this is one of the strongest part of the business. You have people who have start with us 25, 30 years ago in our store in Bury and now Group HR Director, and she's look much younger than that, but that's. People who start as a sales assistant is now Group Buying Director. People start as a sales assistant, Group Retail Director.
This give us the understanding of the business, the understanding of our customer, the understanding of the product that no one else can touch on this one. I think this is a great culture and a great asset. At the same time, over the time, we bought some business I never met so many entrepreneurs in this group because we bought so many business with so many entrepreneur. People who are managing the business with passion and managing those business like it was their business. I think that's another great asset of the group. I spent the last six months to meet our partner, our brand partner, Nike, almost every two weeks, Adidas, VF Group, Salomon, Hugo Boss, New Balance.
You know, plenty of opportunity to ask them what they think about us, what we are doing well, what we're not doing so well, how they see the market, how they think the market evolving, what is their strategy, what is their objective. I spent this time to interact with them, play sport. I was lucky to play tennis, to play paddle, to play football, to run, to swim with them. That's part of our industry. I spent the last six months having fun, having challenge, enjoying happiness, and finding and meeting incredible people and incredible story.
Today is my time to come back to you and to come back with what I discover or how I see the things coming, which is, the starting point. Today is the day to come back to you with our vision as a group, as a senior leadership team, where we want to bring the business, what we want to achieve in the coming five years. It's a time to go through how we make it possible, and I think that for that you will see Nigel coming and explaining how we're going to open the number of stores that we put in the plan. We will see Mike coming and explain to you how we're going to buy the product that will fuel our growth.
You will see Sherilyn coming and to explain how we're going to operate in order to make sure that all the things come together and finishing in the customer hands. You will have Neil explaining the part that you are not interested at all, which is the financial. We just put that at the end because I know that's not your interest at all. That's about today. Where we start, the first things, let's look at the markets. We operate in the best part of the market. We are a sport fashion retailer. We are selling athletic leisure. If you look at the sport market, athletic leisure is what is driving the growth and driving the profitability. If you look at fashion, the same, athletic leisure is what is driving the growth and the profitability.
You know, the growth in our market in the athleisure is 3 to 4 point more than the rest of the sporting goods than the rest of the fashion. That's where we operate. That's the market we are addressing. You can see +6% in the last five years, +8% for the coming five years. This is the type of growth that we are looking at in terms of the athleisure market. Second key part is why it is growing so fast, is because casual is becoming the new formal and athleisure is the new casual, and that is what is benefiting us. It start with sneaker and, you know, it's incredible, you walk in the street and formal shoes has disappeared. You know, it's 10 years ago, that was completely different.
You know, I was still wearing formal shoes. The day I stop, I will never go back. I think that's the same which is happening with our customer. You know, it's such a nightmare to have formal shoes compared to sneakers, that you don't go back, and I think that you all experience that. The first thing, that's what happened to the footwear, and it's happening to apparel too. With COVID, there's been an acceleration, people discovering that it was much cooler to work with a T-shirt than to work with a shirt. You don't have to iron the shirt, so you gain time in the morning and you feel better. That's what happened in the market. And, you know, I was the franchisee of Hugo Boss, of Sandro, Maje, of Ted Baker, of Guess.
Number one selling line for Hugo Boss, not a suit. It's a hoodies. It's a product that we are selling. It's a material that we are using in athleisure. It's no more the formal path. That's what's happening in the market. All of that is coming to us because we are the reference. We were there, the first, the one that has opened this market. The last part is our customer. Our customer target is the young. The young, the teenager. Contrary to what people was having a fear on that, they have more money today than they ever had because they have a job. You know, three years ago, finding a job in a restaurant, finding a job in a retailer, not possible. It was closed. Now, you go to a restaurant, it's difficult... I think that it's difficult to be served.
If you are served, they say, "Well, we are looking for people." That's what's happening. It's happening in U.S., in U.K., in Europe, everywhere. That is very good for our customer base because that's the job they will start with. That's the job they will get a pocket money to buy our product. Yes, inflation, but inflation mainly what? Energy. They don't pay the bill at home. Mortgage, they don't pay the bill at home either. They will benefit from the situation. Not only we are in the most attractive part of the market, not only our customer more monies than ever, but at the same moment, the brand is loved.
That is, this is something where, you know, when I joined the business, I asked to have a sort of love index on NPS. This is a like Net Promoter Score that has been calculated. I was expecting a big love index in U.K. because that's where we were born. That's where is where we start. In fact, you can see we have the same love index almost all over the country. All over the country we operate. U.K., U.S., Europe, France, Italy, Germany. Our love index is two times one of our, of our peers, so to our competitor. That is in all country we operate. Just that's for cultural things. The biggest gap is in France and Italy, so I'm very proud of that. I've done nothing about it, but I'm very proud of that.
The other thing you can see is that France and Italian usually love no one except themself and JD. The good thing that we are too. Americans, this is more cultural, they love everyone, or they pretend to love everyone, but they love JD more than the other. That's all good news for us. That's about love. It's not only love with our customer, it's love with our brand partner. You know, on this one, it's not a question of love. It's not a question of relationship. I think it's because we add value. You know, those big business, they're not talking unfortunately about love or about relationship. They talk about money and they talk about what you bring to them. We bring something unique to them, and two things which are really unique. The first things, we are about lifestyle.
All our brands are sport brand that move to lifestyle, they originate from sport. They cannot lose their roots, they cannot lose what they are, what they stand for, they stand for sport. Even if lifestyle is a significant part of the business, certainly the most profitable and the fastest-growing part of the business, sport is where they start. More than words, an image will give it what is happening. If you enter a Nike store, and this is a Paris one, what you will find, mankind running. Mankind running, because that's where Nike start. You go to an Adidas store, what you will think? Mankind playing football, because that's where they start from. Running. You enter a JD store. No one is running except the staff. What is happening?
The mankind is posing, that is lifestyle, that is something unique. We are the lifestyle authenticator for those brands. Without us, they don't exist so much in lifestyle. They exist by the product, but not by the story. We create the story for them, that is really important to understand. The other thing is that we are the only one lifestyle. If you take a major competitor, a U.S. competitor, yes, they pretend to, but they are more footwear. They don't have the apparel. You can see on the mankind, what's creating the lifestyle impact is a full look, is the fact that we do apparel and footwear. That is what is unique to us. This is where our mix, which is 50/50, it just create a much more value for them.
First things, we are about lifestyle, they're about sport. The second one, you know, is our customer. Our customer is young, is trendy, is urban, is multi-brand. You know, when you are a teenager, the first things you just get rid of your mom to choose what you can wear. You're not going to go directly to a brand that will dictate it, your choice. You want to have the choice, you want to have the freedom. You want to be an environment that looks like you, that give more chance to all the brands, to new brand, cool brand. You want the music. You want people who look like you. This is JD. This is not Nike. This is not Adidas. They recognize that.
They are much broader than we are, at the same moment, we do a job for them, which they cannot do. They cannot be multi-brand because they are mono-brand. They cannot have stores with different brand, new brand, cool brand, different brand. They need to be who they are, who they are is not multi-brand. I think we have really these two things which create this strong relationship: lifestyle versus sport, multi-brand versus mono-brand. That is why we exist. This is why we get so much support from the brand, why we are their first partner in the world. On top of that, I think our execution in stores is much better than anyone else, that means that we have the right to exist for them.
We do that globally because the other things, the other problems that those brands are, they are global, and they want to have global partner. Usually, and especially in Europe, if you take sporting goods, they will have one partner per country. There is no global one. We are one of the few global retailers to offer them the ability to express a brand in a multiple country, multiple environment. You know, it's a really a well-kept secret in JD. People tend to look at us as a successful U.K. retailer. Yes, we are a successful U.K. retailer, but we are not only a U.K. successful retailer. We are a European successful retailer. We are a U.S. successful retailer. There is not a lot of retailers...
There is a lot of nice store in the U.K. in term of retailer going from scratch to 400 store and just stop at that level. This is all the retailer were not able to be out of the U.K. There is a few with, I mean, and we are one of those few. You can see that in term of number of store, 400 store in the U.K., that's JD. 525 store if I put the JD store at the Finish Line. In the U.S., 445 store in Europe and 95 store in APAC. You can see a third, a third, a third, and 10% on the rest. That's already where we are.
If I put on top our sporting goods sport and the other concept we have, it's 800 store more here, and here it's 400 more store with Shoe Palace and DTLR. You see how much international represent in our city. At the same moment, which is great, we have plenty of potential in the U.S., in Europe, in APAC. This is about the density. I can express in market share. As I said before, only three country with more 10% market share.
If I take a more rational or more scientific way of looking at it, if I take number of stores per inhabitant, if I take the U.K. and I just use U.S., I have the space for 4 x more stores in U.S., and this 4 x is based on the 500, in U.S. to get the same density of stores per inhabitant than I have in U.K. That doesn't include the fact that the U.S. per capita is 2x the U.K. per capita. So certainly you can argue it could be 8 x. If you take Europe, the same calculation gets to 5 x more. We know to cover France, you need 250 stores. To cover Italy, you need 200 stores. To cover Germany, you need 400 stores.
To cover U.S., you need 800 store. This is where we are going. This is our opportunity. Plenty of opportunity for us to grow. We have a strong base. We deliver very strong results. This is the last five years growth, 5 x the market average in term of growth. More important, store productivity. You know as I know the best retailer are the one with the highest store productivity. It give you the ability to get the best space because you are more productive than your competitor. 40% more store productivity than our competitor. If I take the American closer competitor, our sales per square foot is almost 2x their sales per square foot. Why? Because we are more in apparel. Apparel generate more sales per square foot. It's more dense.
You put more clothes on a one square meters than you put footwear. That is +10% penetration of apparel compared to our competitor. If I take a major competitor, +20 points, double that. We are good on digital. We are 12 point more digital share of business than our competitor. This is about JD as a brand. What about JD Group and how is JD Group? Here I'm coming to the Group and the way I've approached the Group, I've been trying to be very rational. There is 65 fascia in the Group, and I didn't know that before I joined. Perhaps I would have not joined if I knew. No, sorry. This is a joke. 65 fascia.
The way I say, "Well, let's try to organize my time to be the most efficient possible." I say, "I will discover business by the size of the business, to start with the bigger and to go to the smaller." I'm still not at the 65 one. Because it's too much. It's too much complexity. Too much. It's not good for the small business because they don't get, you know, the attention they deserve. It's good for the big business because they get the complexity of managing small business which are not yet in the same league, so. It's really important to understand that. You know, we can say, "Well, synergy," and all that stuff. No, the reality is that it create complexity. You know, this is an example of real life.
In September, I had an email, someone in IT saying, "Great," What's the name of... Now I forget. Cricket is online. Cricket is two store in Liverpool for the wife of the footballer. That's, that's the concept. That's correct to say? You know, it's online on the same platform at JD. I say, "Wow, this is a great news." I called the guy. I say, "Are you sure?" He say, "Yes, I'm sure." I say, "Okay. Why it is a great news? Because what you're doing is that using the same platform for a GBP 5 million business than for a GBP 20 million business." You imagine the complexity now. Every time I want to do something on JD, I need to do the regression test for Cricket.
Every time Cricket wants to do something different, they need to ask JD to do something for them, which they will not do it. Just to get that. Which is normal. You know, it's just. That's the type of complexity that you have by putting all those business together. Our focus is going to be the six business that represent 90% of our total revenue and 95% of our total profit. Those six business, JD, I spoke enough of JD, so I will not go any more. Shoe Palace DTLR, and I think, we have George and Todd in the room. Great business in U.S., community responding to a different need for the consumer, different link with the consumers than to what JD will do.
Sporting goods business, Sprinter in Spain, Sport Zone in Portugal, Cosmos in Greece, Aktiesport and Perry in Netherlands. Great business. The same, we have Angel, we have David, we have Miguel, we have Michael in the room. I think it's the business we have in those country. Go Outdoors, we have Lee in the room, which is our business, our best brand and the business that we have in outdoor in U.K. size?, which we have Christoph in the room, which is about a more female customer in Eastern Europe. Size? and Footpatrol will play a very high role for JD to test new product, to elevate the proposition, and to be to fuel JD with innovation and new product. That's really where the core of our business is.
In summary, we are in a great market and a market that is accelerating. We have love from our customer and resilient customer. Strong result. We have partner who are supporting us. We have a headroom for growth. Less is really more, and that is really important for us. The strategy, the strategy we as a team, we want to become the leading global sport fashion retailer. This is based on four element of it. JD brand first in the world, first in term of our priority. JD complementary concept, how we can fuel JD with different concept, with different reach of customer, with different product. JD beyond physical retail. JD best for people, best for our partner, best for the community. JD brand first.
I think that, as you have seen and as I explained, there is a lot of growth to come in terms of opening doors in the U.S. It's about accelerating our store opening and our conversion and grow apparel. Nigel will go in more detail and explain how we came to that and how we will do that. Just to give you two or three numbers, we have 127 stores today. We believe the potential is 800 stores. We have 400 Finish Line stores to convert to JD. Half is conversion, half is new stores. That's to give you a sense of that. Currently, we are opening 50 stores per year. We need to move to 100 stores. 100 stores seems a lot.
At the same moment, Lululemon is opening 100, 120 store a year in the last three years in the U.S. In the U.S., it's something that other people have achieved. That's for Nigel to come. Where we come from the number, just to give you, we have done that through a model that we have in terms of geomarketing, in terms of, we get a mobile element in order to know the traffic. It's done catchment by catchment area by area. It's a very precise work that we have done because the good thing of that, we already cover all the U.S., all the state with our business. It's just putting that in the model, understanding where the potential is and coming with a number.
Because we wanted to make sure and because it looks too good to be true, we asked BCG to come and to challenge us and to produce a model. They have done that, and they have challenged us, and they come almost to the same number. A little bit different, but frankly, no big difference. Europe, the same. We have potential to extend in Europe. Europe, as you know, is more complicated than U.S. It's a more complicated area, so it will be done through opening store as we do today and through acquisition. Acquisition of those, like we have done in Italy, we bought 40, 30, 20 doors, a fashion struggling retailer, and we convert those doors to JD. That will be the way of looking at that.
For international, out of those two markets, we are looking at franchise. I think franchise, having been a franchisor and a franchisee, it's a great model for smaller markets, more complicated markets. We don't want to put assets. You know, people who have been in Russia know that today franchise will be a better way, a better bet than putting their own assets. It's a way to address more markets more quickly, and it's about taking less risk in doing so. At the same moment, we're still looking at acquisition, if in strategic markets we will do what we have done in the past. JD brand first, JD complementary concept. We recognize that there are four things that create value for us.
The first one is what we do with size? and Footpatrol and IP is to test new product, is a more elevated and a more, you know, exclusive product offering. That give us the ability to understand the trend, to understand what's happening. Mike will manage that at the same time as manage JD because that will give him the ability to really learn from that, to test product, and to make that happening for JD. The second part is our complementary sport fashion offer, you know, around woman. That is, it's under-penetrated today, and about community brand in the U.S. The same we know that there is room for growth, and we are committed with George to grow this community brand in the U.S.
Sporting goods, it's about elevating our proposition in Spain, continue the good work we are doing in Portugal, turn around our business in Netherlands, and just trying to build a strong business to conquer Europe. At the same moment, for outdoor, we are a strong position in the U.K. We want to really bang out and push Go Outdoors in term of being the reference in the U.K. market for outdoor. For the rest, you have seen we divest fashion, and we are looking at all the other non-core assets to make sure that we really focus on what matter for us and what makes a difference for us. JD beyond physical retail. I'm going to try to be a little bit more inspirational. It's more complicated, but... This is about our young customer.
This is where they spend their money. You know, we talk a lot about physical footprint. At the same moment, for a brand today, we need to be in the digital space because that's where you exist as a brand. If you take the 16-24-years-old customer, which are our key targets, we represent already 26% of their wallet. You know when you touch footwear and apparel, you touch what's something very, very important for them because that's the way they express who they are, what they are doing, how they belong, where they with their community. We believe that with fitness, and we have Alan, which is running our fitness business here with JD Fitness. It's part of this teenager experience. We have identified area where we can expand.
I think all the idea of that is to build a super app for the young, to give them the access to more than only what we do for a living, and to build partnership to do some other things. Certain we can do by ourself through a C2C, so customer- to- customer offering, and we are working on that. After that, for music, for example, retailer, they have a radio, so they just create the experience for the consumer, not only in their store, but in term of that. You can imagine a playlist, JD playlist that a customer can access through the app. In gaming, we have some partnership in gaming, concert event. You see how we can do that. The first brick of that is to develop a loyalty program.
We have one in the U.S. We don't have one in Europe, in Asia, and in U.K. This loyalty program will be built on a technology that is an app technology that give us the ability to create more partnership, to understand better our customer, to enrich our data. The big things is to be able to communicate because, you know, retailer, we have a lot of data, but data without the ability to communicate after to the consumer, it's a little bit useless. This is where you have the two-way. You get the data, and at the same moment, you communicate with your customer. That give us the ability to enrich us and to leverage partnership because when you say, "I have the biggest community of young adults," and Mr. Spotify, "If you want to do some business with us, we have that, and we can do a partnership.
We can create a specific playlist. We can go to gaming." That's about building JD as a brand and beyond our physical retail. At the same moment, we need to make sure that our house is in order. I think that we have developed a digital business, but this has been developed like a separate business. We are very weak on the omnichannel functionality. We are okay in term of digital, but we are not good on omnichannel. Click and collect, for example, was a three-day, five-day delivery time. This is not click and collect. Click and collect is the same day or next day.
That's something we have changed, and that's coming, there is some things happening. Our kiosk, which are good functionality, didn't work out of the U.K. When every time I was visiting a store, I remember visiting in Portugal, and I said, "Why is the mankind in front of the kiosk?" "Because it doesn't work. It's embarrassing." I say, "Okay, let's take the mankind out and let's make the kiosk work." There is a little bit of all this links that we need to do in term of being very really omnichannel, to put the two team, technology team together, to work together, to make sure that it's one experience for the consumer. Delivery speed in Europe, and that's following the Brexit, is that we are not able to deliver quickly enough in Europe. We are out of the market.
It's the same as three to five days. We should be next day. It's because we didn't build the facility in Europe. That's coming. We built a new warehouse. Sherilyn will talk about that. We have a state-of-the-art warehouse in Derby for e-commerce, which will serve the U.K. market. We will build the same in Europe to get the same delivery speed that we need to be in the market. It's about our store colleague, to give them the right tool to do the job. You know, we have developed. We have an IT which in terms of functionality, which is great because it has been developed internally. It's doing what it should do, which is to capture all our process.
At the same moment, we didn't invest enough in terms of our network in our store, so the network's not working always as it should be. We didn't give enough handheld to our sales assistant. You know, when we do that, I was astonished. In December, we give more handheld in our key store. 35% of the business was done on the handheld. You imagine on the mobile POS. That means that I'm sure that half of those customer will have leave the store without buying if we didn't have this tool to do that. That will be put in all our business to just force, to make sure that we are delivering a great service to our customer and give the right tool to our people. JD, best for people, best for partner, best for community.
That's the last part of it, the most important one. First, our long-term partnership with our, with our brands, Nike, Adidas, VF on running. This is something that is so important for us because it's the fuel that drive our growth. As you remember, in September, we signed Nike Connect, and I think Sherilyn has done great job to do that and to work on that. That give us not only access to all Nike product and not only give Nike access to our customer, but it give us a commitment for the coming three years in term of allocation. The plan that Neil will explain to you in term of double-digit growth is a plan that has been agreed with Nike in term of allocation.
We have the product in order to drive the growth because, you know, it's good to open doors, but if you don't have product to put in your doors, it doesn't really work. This has been agreed on a three years basis. We have long-term partnership with our key supplier. Same moment, we access the full assortment, not only Nike. If you take VF, and that was a great success online, you get the full access for all the VF product on our website. You get the full access to Adidas. That give us really the ability to trade not only the product that we curate, that we choose for our customer, but all the product that the consumer can think about it. Last, our product development with the brand.
This is where I think, and this is what the brand is saying, we have the best buying team in our industry. We have the best Group Buying Director with Mike. We are the one that make a difference in term of the choosing the right product for our customer. Really, I was amazed when I was in Nike to see how the Nike people are looking at Mike and saying, "Do you like it? Do you like it?" It just, they just, they're just so nervous about... You know, Mike is quite straightforward, so he was very nervous about the feedback and to say, "Oh, what he's going to say today?" That give us the ability to choose the right product, to develop the right product for our consumer.
You know, almost 50% of the product we are selling, you cannot find in our competitor. That's a lot. That is telling a lot about the partnership we have with the brand. That's about best for our partner. Best for our community. You know, community is important, and we learn a lot, and this is where, you know, the fact that we are with so different concept help us. I think we learn a lot from Shoe Palace and DTLR in term of how you help the community in which you trade, how you do something specific for them, how you develop that. I think it's about us providing job, providing apprenticeship, integration, social mobility.
You know, the foundation, which is not only in U.K., but in all the country operate, is a GBP 3 million, GBP 3 million-GBP 5 million a year money that we are spending in the community in which we operate. Spending this money just to help this community to have a better life, to have a. Enjoy sport, enjoy life, and really about finding job for them. I think we have a vision, and I think to get our program 50% of secondary school in U.K. over the next five year to inspire the next generation of confident, resilient, and skilled employees. This is what we do in the community. At the same moment, we have worked a lot on the environmental.
I think there is a team which is passionate about it in JD. JD Group is in the top 4% of retailer when it comes to sustainability, that's the sustainability index that has been published, we are in the top 4%. At the same moment, we are classified A-minus in the Carbon Disclosure Project, that has been for the last three years. This is much better than all our competitor and most of the retailer, except one... A few of them. I think it shows that we take it seriously. We take it seriously to disclose, to measure. We know that we will be zero in 2043. Seems a long time, but that's the time it takes for our brand partner.
You know, 92% of our carbon emission come from the product we are buying and selling. What we did is to really manage and challenge our brand partner to say, 'How what you going to do?' This 92%, it's not, I cannot do something by myself. It's I need to do something with them. Same, but on the 8% that is under my responsibility, 4% is about the end of life of my product. That's why the second-hand products is important for us because that's address 4% of my total emission. That's about us. That's about the way we work for the community. Last but first, our people. You know, this is a presentation. This is a PowerPoint. That exists only because there is people behind.
It exists only because there are people that want to achieve that are working for that. That's the value of this presentation, is the people that is behind that. And I think that we have great people. We have people, as I said, who start with us at 16 years old, and they are still with us. 90% of our store manager start with us as a sales assistant. 90%. I don't think there is other retailer that can have such a high internal sourcing, internal development, internal team, the JD Academy, and that is something we do for our people and something that we provide unique opportunity for them all over the world, in U.K. for sure, in Europe, in U.S., in Asia, in Australia.
We have people from JD all over the world, and that is what is unique about us. And, you know, I was two days ago in our Oxford Street store, and I was discussing with the area manager. I was saying, "What is your story?" I said, "Well, I start in this store when I was a sales assistant, and you know, my manager is today my regional manager. The store manager of the store at that time is today the group retail director. That's a story, and you have plenty of story like that in JD, and it's a great story, and it's unique. At the same moment, we need to reward our people, and I think sometimes we have been rewarding through promotion, recognizing them through promotion, not perhaps always through the rewards.
I think that we are now paying the same whatever your age, and I think it was important for us to do that. We have extend our bonus to all our manager in the store, which was not the case. We will reward with more equity. I think that Andy touched about that, our top management, which was not the case in the past. That is about us to become the leading global sport fashion powerhouse. We have the people, we have the brand support, we have the brand love, we have the infrastructure to deliver our ambitious growth plan to become the leading global sport fashion powerhouse. That's for me. I think I talk a lot, but I will let now hand over to Neil to explain you something that you are not interested at all, which is the financial.
Thank you.
Right. A bit loud. Thank you, Régis. Good afternoon, everyone. What are the plans that Régis has talked about? You know, how do they convert into financial objectives over the next five years? I suppose these are best framed in three key measures. If we start off with revenue growth, we're looking to achieve revenue growth, double-digit revenue growth on average over that five years. I must emphasize the word average there. We're not saying that we'll have double-digit growth every year. You know, because there will naturally be an acceleration, you know, in the later years of this program, as, you know, as the plans that we're talking about, you know, as they as they gain momentum. We're not changing guidance.
You know what we said before about this year, the year to June 2024 remains true. You know, we're, you know, that guidance is unchanged. Double-digit market share. As Régis said, we have a double-digit market share in three markets at the moment. That's the U.K., Republic of Ireland and Australia. What we're doing today is demonstrating the clear plans that we have in place to reach that same benchmark in other key markets. The path that we're looking to follow is, you know, it's a very well-worn one. You know, JD's got, you know, great experience at opening multiple stores across multiple markets. You know, with consistently, high standards, you know, it's just what we do, you know, and Nigel will talk about that shortly.
It's just, you know, say it's something that we just designed and set up today. In terms of the operating margin, the profit margin, JD is already a group at around that 10% level. The plans that we're talking about today, you know, we're not going to chase revenue just for the sake of it and sacrifice profit. You know, the work that we do and the plans that we're putting in place are, you know, designed to be profitable plans and to maintain the margin, you know, where we are at the moment.
So, you know, all our financial discipline, all our financial rigor when it comes to opening stores, you know, the hurdles that these stores have to reach, none of that will change. The same disciplines will be kept in place. This revenue and profit growth that we're talking about today over the next five years is going to be powered by a significant increase in our annual CapEx spend. Now, I've already guided, you know, to GBP 500 million+ for this year, you know, that's already in the market, and that level will be the norm over the next five years.
If we think about that spend in buckets, then the biggest bucket, the principal focus will remain investment in the stores, you know, whether that's opening new stores, refurbishing existing stores, extending existing stores, et cetera. In the same way that our financial rigor won't change, the standard and quality of the fit of the stores won't change. You know, we've always had a view that having a premium fit for the stores, you know, it elevates the, you know, the product itself that we sell, and that helps to, you know, to bring in the levels of footfall that we do. None of that will change.
You know, we remain absolutely committed to, you know, elevating standards in stores and creating that, you know, that retail theater that is, that's so attractive, you know, for the consumer. In terms of technology, which is the second bucket, you know, Régis's, you know, talked about this, you know, already, you know, in terms of, you know, our desire to be closer to the consumer and to create more of an omnichannel model. You know, we'll do that through, you know, data, through analytics, through creation of, you know, loyalty programs, et cetera. All of that will need investment, and that's why that's, you know, significant investment, and that's why that's say the second-biggest bucket.
The third bucket that we're talking about there is logistics, you know, distribution. You're aware of what we're doing in Derby and Heerlen. You know, those projects are already, you know, well-progressed, particularly Derby, you know, that's already starting to fulfill product. Doing those projects isn't just about adding additional capacity into the logistics network, it's also about speed of service, as Régis's mentioned. You know, our online proposition at the moment in Europe is not great. You know, it's taking too long because that product's still coming from the U.K. Moving that fulfillment over to Europe, you know, will take days out of that process and, you know, we'll get the financial benefit from that as well.
Just in terms of cash, you'll have, you know, you'll have worked out, you know, we generate, you know, at least GBP 1 billion a year in cash from our operating activities. In terms of the, you know, the priorities for that cash, you know, historically, we've always, you know, had a view that keeping the cash in the business, you know, to invest in long-term opportunities, you know, for stores, you know, developing stores and, you know, M&A is, you know, is the right way to go and, you know, I say it gives long-term value to shareholders. You know, that overriding principle isn't going to change. You know, we still think that's the, you know, the best use of the best use of funds.
In terms of stores and tech, you know, that will absorb what? Half? Yeah, half of our annual cash generation. Even so, you know, we've still got, you know, significant financial resources to fund, you know, M&A activity. I know we've been quieter recently when it comes to M&A, but our appetite to complete meaningful M&A is absolutely undiminished. I've just put share buybacks and dividends on there. That's really just a point that, you know, we'd like to be more flexible, you know, in terms of our capital returns structures going forward. We've not been able to do share buybacks previously. You know, we've not had the authority from shareholders to do that.
We will look to get that from shareholders at this year's AGM. Now I'm not saying we're going to do share buybacks. All we're saying is we just want to be a bit more flexible about how we about how we, you know, approach returning capital to shareholders. The final point I would just make, just at the bottom there, is something we're very mindful of. You know, we have a number of, you know, minority interests in, you know, some of our subsidiary businesses, and, you know, there are certain contractual commitments to them. They're not all in one go, they're not all now, they're not all next year. You know, they kind of phase in through the course of this through the course of this timeline.
You know, we're very aware of them, and you should be aware of them as well. Just the three takeaways, the three key points really just to reiterate, you know, one is that double-digit ambition, you know, across our various channels, you know, different measures but, you know, double-digit measures. The growth in revenue and profit to be powered by, you know, an expansion in our, you know, CapEx, you know, additional investments in CapEx, and then our cash, you know, we will use in line with our strategic priorities, but focusing very much on those long-term opportunities around CapEx and M&A, which, you know, as I say, give the long-term growth in the business.
I'm now gonna hand over to the team who, whilst I talk about it, they're the ones who are actually gonna have to make it happen. We've got Nigel, who's the group property director. He's gonna talk about, you know, how we make it possible with stores. We've got Michael Armstrong, you know, Group Buying Director, who'll talk to you about product. We've got Sherilyn Paterson, who's the group ops director, and she'll talk to you about operations. Nigel.
Thank you, Neil. Régis talked about having room for growth, hopefully this slide gives an indication of the significant opportunity we have globally to grow the business. We're showing numbers here, which we haven't been renowned for in the past, so bit of pressure on here. The opportunity across all these markets are there to be seen. We've got locations identified behind each of these numbers that we've mapped out as being suitable locations for JD. In terms of North America, we've recognized here an opportunity. Régis was talking about up to 800 stores. I'm gonna say above 500 stores.
A significant opportunity both from new and also existing locations where we operate as Finish Line now, which we will convert, relocate, or upsize as the case may be, roughly in equal splits. Europe is also a significant opportunity, in excess of 400 locations. We have particular success at the moment in the main markets in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany. They represent significant opportunities to continue to grow. Like America, already operating in these markets give us the confidence to continue the development in these areas. We also, of course, have teams in place in these in these markets. They're already developing stores now. Really in terms of increasing the pace, it's about increasing the resource.
In terms of the rest of the world, we've 300 stores in existing and new markets, but we see this really being fueled by franchising. The U.K. really is about upsizing at 400 stores. We're pretty saturated in the market. Over the last few years, we've been particularly successful of upsizing in this market. I have to say, it's not just about the numbers. We have very strict disciplines in place in terms of site selection. We know what works for JD in terms of store size, shop fronts, adjacencies, and we'll continue to make sure we take a disciplined approach to this increase in pace. We also have a very strict approval process in place. All new stores will continue to go through that appraisal process.
All the key metrics, including payback, which when clearly you're making an investment of significance as this is important. Finally, lease flexibility. We've always taken a very cautious approach with regard to our leases, and we'll continue to make sure we do so going forward. Around the globe at the moment, we have an average lease length of between two and a half and three years, and we'll continue to make sure we have that flexibility built in. In terms of the takeaways, I think we've identified a significant opportunity for growth. We do have experienced teams in place to actually deliver this rollout, and we've got a very proven site selection process that we'll continue to follow. That's it from me.
I'm gonna hand over now to Mike, who obviously deals with the product that goes in the stores.
Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. Excuse me. For over 40 years, JD's had a, you know, a laser focus on supplying young people, our core consumers, 16-24-year-olds, the latest and greatest in sports fashion. Over the years, we've built a unique position by offering head-to-toe looks through elevated retail environments and obviously our apparel offer within that's a clear differentiator for us in the marketplace. We are a multi-brand and multi-category retailer as well, which from a, from a consumer point of view, gives us the benefit of having an unrivaled choice and selection which really meets the needs of the way that, you know, young people wanna shop nowadays as far as brands and product types are concerned. Also our, you know, the JD brand perspective that we have is really unique as well.
We, you know, we live and breathe the lifestyles of our consumers, and this manifests itself through, you know, things like social media, strategic partnerships we have, and also the brand ambassadors that are the, you know, the front-facing part of the business. Yeah, we believe we're in a, you know, we've a great connection with the consumers, but we also have our brand partnerships as well, where, you know, we believe, as Régis has already touched on, you know, we're in a, you know, we do have great relationships with the brands, and this is primarily because JD operates at the intersection between where the brands are and where the consumers are. We sit right in the middle of that.
For that reason, we have a very dynamic and collaborative relationship where we work hand-in-hand to really deliver products that, you know, we know our consumers are looking for, and a lot of those insights are coming from, you know, the JD buyers delivering that message to the brands to make sure we have the best, most relevant products. This is obviously, you know, a mutually beneficial relationship. We both rely on each other. The, you know, the increasing scale of the business that we have as well in recent years has given us the benefit of being able to take this product, you know, globally, which has been obviously great for us as well. Within, you know, again, Régis has touched on this, we have the banner ecosystem of Footpatrol, size? and JD.
We work collaboratively with the brands to launch products, specific products through Footpatrol, where we can seed and incubate them into the marketplace, and then we can also get early insights and early reads on future trends for ourselves, which has been massively beneficial for us over the years. Yeah, we have a great relationship with our partners. We think we understand our consumers pretty well, it, you know, for us really it's all about product and product is king. In our world, we think that, you know, or specifically for JD, we think that, you know, product for us is really our ace card. We are highly differentiated, sorry. We have about 60% of all apparel that we sell is exclusive and about 40% of footwear is entirely exclusive.
We have tailored, you know, obviously having an understanding of what our consumers are looking for, we have tailored and curated ranges which focus on each country, region, and even down to the, you know, the city, depending on how influential it is from a, from a trend point of view. These curated ranges allow us to really double down on key looks, trends, moments to maximize the opportunity, which makes, you know, ensures we're commercially successful, but it still gives us the slack to offer the, you know, the breadth of choice that our, that our consumers are really looking for.
The last point when it comes to product is, you know, on our own labels and licensed brands portfolio, these operate in niches in the marketplace that the bigger brands don't really tend to play in, which is, you know, it means we're not really treading on anybody's toes or upsetting our branded partners. There's some clear benefits that we have with these brands. You know, they offer us obviously some, you know, higher intake margins, but they give us a quick response time when trends are changing or when we need to get on something pretty quickly. Also what we're finding as we move internationally more and more, these brands allow us the ability to offer really competitive price points, which is particularly appealing in some of the emerging markets that we operate in.
You know, really in a nutshell, we think we get the consumers. We've got the brand partnerships. We believe we've got the product, but we've, you know, we've got to make sure we can get it to the consumer as well. With that, I will pass it over to Sherilyn.
Cheers, Mike. Thank you, everyone. Let me talk to you today about supply chain and technology. I'll start with supply chain and operations. Over the last few years, we've shown some real resilience in our group as it stands, and we've already put down some strong foundations within our capacity and our networking. Last year, we had a U.K. online facility delivered on time and on budget. We'll actually see the rewards of that this year. We're building an excellent European site for our European online and online business this year, which will see the sort of real capacity come into play next year.
In terms of North America, we've got an extended facility, looking around for George, with Shoe Palace this year, also halfway through a network plan, which will mean that we can put the right facilities to build the right modeling, Nigel's geo work to get capacity for North America for our five year plan. In addition to this, we've also done work on our previous kind of secondary complements, whether it be size?, Go Outdoors, sporting goods, and we continue to build that capacity. We then look at what else we're going to do in terms of the supply chain. It's not just about capacity. For us, we're looking at different initiatives from the brand work that we can do to optimize our volume.
Digitalizing our supply chain to make sure that we've got not only the speed to market for the consumer, but as carbon neutral as we can, and moving all of those costs further away down as we grow the business. We're also looking at, in terms of our head office, how we build all of the complexity that we are building and how we make it simpler. Obviously, we've got to use me-build CapEx wisely. We're upscaling our investment to support our, in fact, ambition and our desire to be the global omnichannel retail powerhouse. This will cost money to move us and keep us agility and resilience.
For us, we will put all of our efforts into making this actually putting the customer at the center of this, whether it be the technology around how we understand them, how we move through our stock allocation systems, which we're improving and see the benefits of. How we see improved stock and store optimization, which will help us make our bigger estates more profitable more quickly. Or indeed, our investments around how we can service our customers in store quicker. This could be from mobile extra, mobile payments, an improved click and collect experience, a seamless return and kiosk experience. We have 100 initiatives all around how can we serve our customer, whether it be retail or online, better.
We just will keep us on top of this living and breathing it every single day. The benefit of this is obviously, obvious in the sense that they will spend more. Through the last few years, globally, we have seen an improved average order value conversion. However, difficult the challenges have been moving between channels, we have shown ourselves to be really resilient with the help from our retail colleagues, distribution colleagues, and online experts. The good bit about being a group is that we can steal the ideas across the piece, and the Americans do an excellent job in terms of loyalty cards. They have 5.7 million active people already, with over 50% adoption of loyal people coming and shopping each time. Sprinter has nearly 2 million in their loyalty plan.
This year, we're going to launch the JD European loyalty card, which will help service us online and offline through rewards, experiences that will dovetail into Michael's product and understanding of the consumer. This will also help us have a single customer view that within U.K. and Europe we have not had before. It will help us tailor our communications. It will help us be more efficient. It will help us really retain that customer through its lifestyle. Finally, what to do in terms of the technology and distribution space, but we believe that this evolution will really help us deliver the growth plans that Régis has set out earlier today. Hand you back over to Régis.
Thank you very much, Helen. I think that it's the end of the presentation. We'll move to a Q&A. It's about becoming the leading global sports fashion powerhouse. Think JD brand first, JD complementary concept, JD beyond physical retail, and JD best for people, partner, and community. We move now to Q&A, and we just need to put the table and the chair for all of us to come on stage, and we'll answer your question. I will take the questions. Sorry. Yep. Yes. You are authorized to speak. All right, you were first, so sorry.
It's Richard Chamberlain from RBC Capital Markets. Maybe I can just kick off with a couple of questions, if that's okay. Just to confirm, Régis, the store, targets that you've got in place, sort of roughly 300 a year for the next five years, it sounds like the vast majority of that is gonna be organic growth. Is that right? Rather than coming from acquisitions. That's the first one. The second one is looking at the CapEx projections, GBP 500 million-GBP 600 million including, I think just over half to be spent on stores. That would imply, I think per store or per new store, the CapEx is gonna be quite a bit higher on a sort of per foot basis than it's been historically.
Does that imply that the majority of stores are gonna be at the sort of higher end shop fit, so the bigger, better kind of premium JD fascia stores? You know, Why is the CapEx per foot much higher than it's been historically? Thanks.
I would start with the first one compared. In term of store, yes, for the, you know, it's more... There is three part of it. Is conversion, which is the U.S. story because we have door to convert. It's about new store in U.S. and in Europe. In Europe, we recognize that to find as many door as we try and we want to find, there will be certainly some acquisition, which is the type of 20, 30 or more doors depending on where we are. We have not factored something specific. We put in term of CapEx, the same CapEx as an organic one because, you know, you cannot plan for acquisition.
We know that we will need a little bit of acquisition to get the door because it takes more time in Europe to get the right doors. That will be the answer. Concerning the cost per store, I think that.
Yeah. I'll take that one. I think there's a couple of things there, Richard. One is, you know, there'll be, you know, refurbishment program as well. Obviously you've just taken total CapEx and divided by new stores, but there's a refurbishment program as well. Secondly, I would say that, you know, the average size of stores that we're doing is progressively getting bigger, so that then gives us more space to do more apparel, which as Mike pointed out, you know, is really our point of difference.
Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Yeah.
Hi, it's Warwick Okines from BNP Paribas Exane. On the same sort of theme, how are you going to ensure that the same quality of stores are delivered as you ramp up the program? Perhaps you could say a bit more about the site approval and the financial evaluation process, please.
Yeah. Nigel?
We've got very experienced teams around the globe. In terms of ramping up, we're just going to use the same teams, but obviously with similarly experienced people. We're gonna be growing the teams. We've already got the processes in place, so I just see it as additional resource really to roll out. We're not doing anything different. All the process that we do, as I was saying in my presentation, will be the same. We're absolutely insistent that we are as disciplined about all the stores we take and that we appraise and approve all those stores in the same way.
The other part I would perhaps add is that Régis and I sign off every new store that gets approved, so there's a really detailed property board meeting that sits on a regular basis. We both attend that and, you know, we sign off every store. It goes through a really rigorous process and there's a number of metrics and hurdles that it's got to pass before it gets approved.
Yeah.
Hello. It's Graham Renwick from Berenberg. Just firstly on margins, how should we be thinking about the development of margins? Are you gonna be holding margins broadly flat as you invest for growth? Or should we be assuming some sort of leverage over the next five years? Perhaps just longer term, where are your margin ambitions? 'Cause I've noticed sort of the APAC business is already at 15% margin, which is close to the U.K. Is that a proof point that international fascias can sort of trend towards U.K. profitability in the long term? Just on M&A, if it's still on the agenda, you know, what sort of markets, what sort of types of businesses are you gonna be looking to?
Is there any sort of structural reason why you couldn't be looking at other regions like LATAM or China, for instance? I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Thank you.
Okay. I will start on profitability, but Neil will correct me as soon as I say something wrong. No, on profit, I think it's a growth plan, and I think that I would like to insist on this plan. I think that was the, you know, the guidance of Andy when I joined the business, and I think that was your first remark, say, "This is about a growing, a growth business." That's why we target We believe that the level of profitability that we have is world-class, and I think that we believe that we will invest to grow the business more than to grow the top line. For sure it will grow by definition because of the volume, but that's where the philosophy that we have.
There will be efficiency gain. At the same moment, there will be investment that we need to make in term of infrastructure. We believe that the level of profitability that we have today, and you rightly mentioned that we tend to have a high level of profitability everywhere we operate. There's not a big gap between, you know, U.K. and the rest. There is a little bit of gap, but it's not a huge one, and I think that we are really happy where we are, and we want to invest in order to deliver more growth. Neil.
Yeah, Will complement my answer. Yeah, I'd just follow it up by saying, you know, initiatives, you know, like the technology and loyalty is not just CapEx, there's OpEx in there as well. You've got those levels of OpEx, and as Régis says, there is. There will be leverage that come through in other areas, say like logistics as that gets more efficient. Broadly, we see all those netting out and staying equal. I mean, the only thing I would say, and again, Michael, kick me if I say something wrong here, but from a brand perspective, you know, you know over the years that as you grow, you don't get better terms. You know, better terms from brands just isn't on the agenda.
You know, this is about OpEx, I think, for me. Is that fair?
100%. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
M&A, sorry, because that was the second answer. On M&A, I think there is three part on M&A. The first one is about doors in Europe. We need more doors, I think that. In a certain way, previously, fashion door are the ones that we are more interested in it. As you know, fashion is going through a difficult time, I think we will have some opportunity because it's about doors to convert to JD. We know that we perform better when we are close to the, to the fashion, door. That's the first thing. That's tactical, M&A activity. In term of, you see the second point of the strategy is complementary.
We are looking at things that can complement our offer, and I think we were looking at that and with a very disciplined way. It's not complementary and everything is complementary. It's really in our area, in athleisure, where we can complement what we have. In term of geography, I think LATAM is one of the region where we can envisage to do M&A. We have started the reflection. We have not concluded on this one, but you're right. I think for me, China is not on our plan. China is a lifestyle market and it's a monobrand market. Everything I said in term of us being complementary to the brand doesn't apply to China. In China, if you take Nike, they are lifestyle already.
They didn't come from sport. I think that doesn't give us, you know, a differentiate enough and added value enough for the brand to go there. I don't believe that China is some way for us. I think that there is a lot of area to conquer without going to China. I hope I answer your question. Okay, yes, I think it's front. We'll go from front to back.
Thank you. Simon Irwin at Credit Suisse. Couple for you. If we step back five years, one of the arguments for M&A was always that the big brands didn't want to see a lot more space being added, particularly as they moved towards DTC. Has that changed? Obviously, one of your big partners does look as though it's done something of a shift. Allegedly a big meeting in America in October, talking to wholesale partners. You know, essentially, have you got sign-off from your brand partners for this big acceleration in stores, particularly in markets which you're, you know, have already got a lot of stores in?
Second would be, in terms of online, is there a level of online penetration when your store sales density starts to fall and that impacts your overall profitability and kind of where would that be, and is that a concern?
I think yes, in term of, you know, I think Nike start to understand that first. I think in September, it was really back to wholesale and saying, "Well, we love you, and, we try to, not to love you, but we love you." I think that was the, the first message. The second one I think is, in term of doors. I think you're right in sporting goods. I think that they start to differentiate the two view between sporting goods and lifestyle. I think that, I think that is certainly true in term of number of doors for sporting goods. It's certainly less true in term of number of doors for lifestyle. I think that's the differentiation I will make. I think it has...
We had the discussion with them and we have the support to do what we are doing. I think that's a big difference. I think before that they were looking at one viewer looking at number of doors. I think that they differentiate the two which benefit to us because we are a lifestyle operator. That's where, you know. I think coming back to my point around why we exist, I think we exist in this partnership because we win some things they cannot do, and they recognize that. I think that it will be a little bit different for sporting goods. I think they can do that. I think their lifestyle, it's more complicated for them to do so. That's why it give us much more opportunity in lifestyle than it is in sporting goods.
Concerning the online, you know, I will give you a number which is 90% of our customer go online before going in store. You know, the fact that it's 35%, 40%, 25% frankly doesn't really matter. We know, and this is really, this has been my experience in all my job is that the more store you have, if you have a store in the catchment area, the more you do online. That is counterintuitive. You know, I mean, that's a reality. Every time you put a store, your online business go triple or quadruple, and you say, "Well, it should not be the case," but that's reality. The reality is that, you know, there is no good percentage or bad percentage. It's the total that counts.
You know, 50% of zero is still zero. What is important, I get the business and I think the starting point for our business is to have doors because that's where we were originate, and this is where we interact with the customer. I'm not nervous at all in term of the online penetration. I think we had the crash test with COVID in term of store. I think what is really reassuring for brick-and-mortar retailer is that after the crash test, people came back to the store. You know, at that point you could argue and you could have been very nervous to say, "Hmm, now that everyone has opened their account, everyone test internet, are they going to come back?" They came back even more than what we were expecting.
I think that the real... We know that, and we know that they had a free lunch for a long time, the pure player. Today now they have to get a return. There is no business model. The real business model is in brick and mortar and the two proposition. I'm not nervous about whatever the percentage. Still I'm doing a lot. I'm happy about a big percentage or small percentage. Just go second round, we go like that.
Thank you. It's Grace Smalley from Morgan Stanley. I have three questions, please. The first two are quick financial clarification. On the double-digit revenue growth, could you just clarify how much of that you expect to come from new space and the store acceleration, and how much is from like-for-like revenue growth from your existing store base? Also on the margins, Neil, it sounds like you're essentially embedding margins flattish. Do you expect to hit the double-digit margin in every year of the plan, or is there any phasing we need to think about in terms of the timing of the investments or any of them being front-loaded? My last question is more on the competitive landscape. You showed the slides there showing JD's higher, like Net Promoter Scores.
Are you seeing any changes on what your competitors are doing in particular in North America, where one of your key competitors is also under a new management team? Thank you.
It's too precise for me, so, Neil ...
You do the last one.
I will do the last one.
Yeah, you can do the easy one.
You want me to start with the last one?
While I work out what I'm gonna say. Right. In terms of the drivers of the revenue growth, then that will change, I think, over t he five years. You know, it'll take time to ramp up this accelerated program of store openings. You know, I'd say probably, you know, this year, you know, you might be looking at like for like growth of, I don't know, probably about half of, half of it. You know, 'cause I think we've gone for revenue growth this year, we've guided at about 7%, I think, something like that. I'd say it's probably about half like for like, and then half is space, and then thereafter, the amount that will be contributed by space will increase.
You know, it'll probably end up being about a 2-to-1 relationship between like-for-like and space growth. In terms of margins, yeah, probably flattish every year is what my expectation would be. You know, around that 10% mark.
It will be double digit every year.
It will be double digit, yeah.
On competition, I think that, you know. You know, it's a little bit unfair what's happening, is that we come into the U.S., we have brand-new store, and our main competitor is there. They have 15 years old store. You know, it's very unfair, you know. I'm really sorry about it, but it's very unfair. You know, if you are a consumer, where you will go? Do you go to a store that is 10 years old, that is the store of your dad, or you go to the brand-new store, shiny and with digital? I think it's an easy choice. You know what? I've been in the other position, which is how are you going to justify to invest in your store estate to stand still? Very difficult to do.
We invest in store and we're growing, it's much easier because we get new customer, new business, our return is a very good return, very quick return. I was astonished by the type of payback we have. If you have an existing store, you know, what you do? I think that this is a difficult question, especially when you have not a new concept or something really new to offer, you know, what are you offering new? We are offering completely new experience, a lot of digital screen and other stuff, and we get the return because it's new, because 100% of the sales are new sales. When you start with a certain level of sales, much more complicated.
Hi there, Jonathan Pritchard at Peel Hunt. Staying in the States, do you possibly need a new, a new format? Obviously, you've got the vast majority of your stores at the moment in shopping malls. Of the 300 sort of, white space JDs, is there a need for perhaps a neighborhood format or something like that to evolve? Secondly, just sort of numerically, what's the plan in terms of DTLR and Shoe Palace openings? Thirdly, on cash and distribution, are you mindful of the brand's reaction to being more distributive with the cash? Is that something that sort of plays on your mind? You know, if you're more expansive, would they perhaps take that badly?
I think on the last one, we didn't say that we will distribute more. I think that, so that. We said that is, we put an order of priority. I think that's the way we look at it. I think that it doesn't mean that we will distribute more. In our plan currently, we didn't put more distribution. We just put a sort of order of priority, and we believe that, if we have to do something, and I think it's mainly around covering, you know, options that we have.
We could do share buyback because that could be a way to edge us in term of the commitment we have with minority shareholder and to avoid that we have too much cash on the balance sheet and we get too many question around what you do with your cash flow. It's a nice way to answer the question. On the Shoe Palace and DTLR, I think that the team is there, so I think that take the opportunity to ask George and Todd the question. They are passionate about what they do, and they do a great job. I think the brand love what they do, and I think that the community is high on the agenda of our key partners. We will continue to develop those business. We believe in those business.
We believe in the quality of the propositions. The team is fantastic and really we do something which is unique. I think that, we'll continue to do that. The first one?
Well, say, is there a need for another neighborhood business to evolve?
That's not what we are. I think for JD, we are really happy with what we, who we are and what we are. I think that we don't want to do too many things. We prefer, in that case, like we do in U.S., having a specific format to do that. You know, it's the same, you know, I put that another complimentary woman. You know, trying to do two things, you just don't do it right. I think that JD is a clear proposition. You know, I don't know if you know well Mike, but Mike will not let us do something different. I'm even not asking the question. It's not.
I would just say though, JD, and, you know, if you take the European market, JD is a community retailer anyway. Within, you know, five miles from here, you'd probably get 15 stores on the street, slightly smaller format. We are opening stores in the U.S. right now that are kind of the same, from the same mold and you know, particularly New York. It doesn't need a new format. It's just a slightly smaller.
The concept-
Footprint. Yeah.
Concept's very urban, our current concept, and it's working particularly well in America, so we see no reason to change that at the moment.
Yeah.
Shame to let the mic go by. John Stevenson at Peel Hunt. Just one question. Just on the KPIs that stand out in the U.S. business as a function of the loyalty card, I know it's great for the product launches in terms of sort of filtering out the bots and stuff, and I know it probably informs kind of where to open stores. Having that single view of customer, can you call out any specific KPIs where you're outperforming in the markets because of that data and what you'd look to achieve from the U.K.?
It's too technical for Ms. Sherilyn.
I think in terms of the. We already know if you take the U.K. for your question, if you like, we already have lots of data due to like how, you know, the banking data that we have. We know that our, already without a loyalty scheme, if you like, that our omnichannel customer spends between 25% and 35% more with us. The idea really is that giving the choice to our customer, when she comes or he comes into the online, into the in-store, that we can really expand that experience. We're gonna take obviously the Finish Line and the American experience, but apply that to what we know best about our own community stores within the U.K. and European thing. I think really it's more around average transaction. It's obviously about more frequency.
We do have a 50% apparel mix in the U.K. and a 40% in Europe. For us, it's galvanizing all the data we already kind of know to a certain extent, but in a much more enriched way, so we can tailor the communication. I think our core customer is clearly obliterated by lots of social media, so the communication we need has to be genuine to cut through. I suppose from a cold perspective, it's about how we get more out of that basket over long term. The avenues in which it can take us are quite wide. We just mentioned the Connect program, so we were first EMEA partner to go there. We've learned already like what the shift from DTC to our new world of wake, working with brands is completely different.
How we connect with our customers and our brands going forward, we're kind of creating our own pathway is the reality. I think that'll be really beneficial in the long term.
Eleonora Dani from Shore Capital. You mentioned that you asked BCG to challenge you on your ex-expansion plan. Interesting to hear what were the assumptions most challenged, or the one that you did agree on, for example. Say if, what if that 26% of customer wallet that JD serves, reduces, and Travel takes over?
Anybody? No.
I could give the.
Go on.
the answer there.
Go on.
The area that we probably disagree, which is a nice disagreement to have, is around the U.K. online penetration.
Mm-hmm.
We feel like there's more. BCG have tempered our kind of appetite for that. That's a, that's a nice problem to have. That's probably the area of most lively contention. We'll have to see, you know, in the long term which way that plays out. In terms of the store numbers, we agreed, because lots of the modeling was-
Mm-hmm
done from a kind of top-down, bottom-up view of, you know, territories, market share, capital spend.
Yeah, what the potential was.
Yeah.
Good. Okay.
Last two.
Hi there. It's Richard Taylor from Barclays. Just a couple of questions on allocations, please. Just to make sure I heard you correctly, the brands have effectively signed off on the allocations they're gonna give you that support the double-digit revenue growth rates that you put across today? Just to understand differentiating factors there. I know you've made a big point about lifestyle versus just apparel that some of your peers are doing. What is it that you're doing that really resonates with them, that allows them to sort of sign off and allows you to put statements into the market like you have done today regarding that revenue growth?
I think it shows the strength of the partnership. It was part of our agreement around Nike Connect. I think that's that has been agreed and we have worked on the plan and we make sure that the plan works together. That means that, you know, Sherilyn has been very disciplined in term of taking all the hypothesis and to make sure that everything add up and at the end it makes sense. That's the way it works. Why with us? Why not? I think because we create more value for them than anyone else in the world. I think that's the answer I will have. I think that they're really, every time I spend time with them, they really love what we are doing.
They love the quality of our execution, their concept and the fact that it's creating value for them. That's where we are today, and it will continue.
Hi. Kate Calvert from Investec. Just two for me. I just wanted to come back to Pritchard's question because you carefully didn't answer it in terms of your growth expectations for Shoe Palace and DTLR. Are you sort of de-emphasizing the growth potential of those two formats in the States? I thought that was the sort of area of growth where the brands were looking to grow.
I think that no, we just, I think we're mentioning that our first priority JD, but we are as much passionate as growing DTLR and Shoe Palace. I'm sure that if you ask the question to George or to Todd, they will say that they will show all the passion they have for growing their business, and I think we are here to support them. No, I think we have the same willing to open. It's the number of doors to open and potential. The big difference is that for Shoe Palace and DTLR is the number of state we can go. It's not as simple as for JD.
JD is what they characterize JD as a national brand and Shoe Palace and DTLR more as a regional brand, and that's something we try to move to get access to more states. That's why it's growing. No, there is no limit. There is no limit to the ambition of George and Todd.
Okay. That isn't in the CapEx plans, is that?
It's-
Is that?
It is in the CapEx plans. Yeah.
That is in the CapEx plans. Okay. My second question is, how should we think about the growth of the Iberian sporting goods retail business going forward as well?
We have a strong business in Iberia, I think with the two brands, Sprinter and Sport Zone. I think that we want to make sure is that our proposition and we concentrate, the Spanish market is still very fragmented. I think that we are looking at ways to concentrate the market to make sure that we have a clear, we are a clear leader in this market. That give us the base to develop and to elevate the proposition and to grow in other country in Europe.
Great. Thanks so much.
I think last one at the back, and then we'll, we can always carry on with Q&A, you know, mixing with the team at the end.
Thanks. Adam Cochrane, Deutsche Bank. You mentioned the exclusive product that you sell. Can you just give us a bit more of an idea on, in terms of that exclusive product to yourself, the sort of split maybe? Is it, without maybe numbers, but different by country? Is it different by footwear versus apparel? Within that, is that a sales proportion that you're talking about there or number of items sitting within the shelves? Thanks.
Yeah, that's sell through, yeah. As far as the, you know, each market is concerned, we really, you know, we build a portfolio of products that should cover the needs of all the market. We just assort that product depending on the needs of any particular market. It's, it's really a merchandising.
Yeah, yeah.
exercise.
Yeah.
It's not, it's not very complicated. It's based on consumer needs.
Yeah, yeah. For example, if we take a market that has more apparel, we have more, slightly more exclusivity or special makeups in apparel, sometimes our footprint of our stores and how our stores are built up will dictate that. If I take Spain versus Netherlands, you know, it's got a bigger apparel mix because of our footprint of our stores. The exclusivity piece is driven by us and really what the consumer wants rather than dictated by the brand. If that makes sense.
All right. Well, thank you everyone. I'd like to thank Régis, Neil, the team, for all their contributions today. I hope you found it interesting. I think the level of questions suggests you did. It's been good to meet you all. Obviously, we're, it's effectively a sort of relaunch of the JD strategy. Much of it will be familiar to you, as we've said. I think we're gonna have some drinks now at the back of the room, so it'd be lovely to stay if you can and join us, and there'll be a chance to meet the wider team who are sitting at the back here. Anyone with one of these yellow things on, is fair game. Do feel free to chat more widely to the people, in the wider team.
Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Well done, Régis. Well done.
Thanks.
Well done, Neil.