JD Sports Can Enter Mexico With 140 Stores Without Adding 140 to the Market
- The global sneaker and streetwear retailer will enter a market where its competitors already occupy nearly 108,000 square meters.
JD Sports is preparing one of those expansions that can multiply a brand’s presence without expanding its real estate footprint at the same rate. The British company will enter Mexico in 2027 through a long-term franchise agreement with Grupo Axo, which will operate more than 140 locations by leveraging its existing network of sneaker stores.
Grupo Axo currently operates more than 750 stores across 23 brands in the country, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Calvin Klein, Old Navy, Promoda and Victoria’s Secret. Of that network, nearly 150 belong to TAF, Rag & Bone, Lust, Laces and Nike, which are directly related to sneakers and footwear.
Ninety-six percent of those stores are located inside shopping centers, and more than eight in 10 are concentrated in the Central, Bajío, and Northern regions. Although JD and Axo have not identified which locations will be part of the operation, if it uses part of that network, JD’s entry could take place largely within malls and be concentrated especially in Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Jalisco, and Nuevo León.
That distribution would also take JD into markets where much of its competition is already located. In Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, for example, comparable sports and sneaker retailers totaled about 235 stores and nearly 108,000 square meters of gross leasable area as of the second quarter of 2026, equivalent to 7% of apparel, footwear and accessories stores in those markets but 12% of their space. Four chains—Innovasport, Innvictus, Martí and TAF—accounted for 73% of those stores and 87% of the space.
JD Sports Enters Mexico With Fewer Stores and More Space
The entry also comes as JD’s business faces pressure in other countries. During the second quarter of fiscal 2027, corresponding to the 13 weeks ended Aug. 1, 2026, the group’s organic sales fell 1.3%, and comparable sales declined 3.1%. In North America, its largest region by sales during the period, the declines reached 4.5% and 6.8%, respectively.
Following its first-half performance and amid a market marked by discounting and promotions, the company lowered its full-year fiscal 2027 profit forecast before tax and adjusting items from between £750 million and £850 million to between £700 million and £800 million. The company attributed the weakness, among other factors, to cost-of-living pressures on its core consumer and a less favorable product cycle in some footwear categories.
The pressure, however, has not led JD to stop expanding, but rather to concentrate its space. During the first half of the fiscal year, the company operated fewer stores but more retail space. This suggests a strategy aimed at shifting a greater share of its sales toward fewer locations and making the stores it retains more productive.
In Mexico, the agreement with Axo pursues similar efficiency through a different approach. Instead of concentrating more space in fewer locations, it lets JD expand its presence from the outset by relying on an existing real estate network, without each new point of sale necessarily requiring a new store. Only later does the strategy call for expanding the network in key locations. And so, the more than 140 locations describe the scale of JD’s arrival today, but not yet the scale of its real estate impact.
To learn about the location, size, and tenant mix of Mexico’s leading shopping centers, visit SiiLA Market Analytics or email us at contacto@siila.com.mx.
