Tanyard Advisory, Retail and Sporting Goods consulting and Fidelio Partners, Building Better Boards
JD making another bold move in N. America with the $1.1bn acquisition of Hibbett. There are some echoes of the original Finish Line aqn here, taking advantage of soft US demand, notably from Nike, to act as a consolidator. The difference this time being Hibbett is still pretty profitable with $186m of EBITDA on sales of $1.7bn. The challenge is going to be how to run 5 different formats in the US market but it certainly gives JD an increasingly dominant position in the distribution of sports lifestyle in N America.