What: JD Sports is entering Mexico through a long-term franchise partnership with Grupo Axo, which will operate more than 140 JD stores and the brand's Mexican ecommerce business from 2027.

Why it is important: Grupo Axo's platform of over 1,000 direct-to-consumer stores and 7,500 wholesale concessions gains another international fascia, tightening its position as the intermediary between global brands and Mexican shoppers.

Grupo Axo will operate more than 140 JD stores across Mexico from 2027, converting its existing sneaker estate to establish the fascia, with selected sites expanded over time into JD's larger "bigger and better" flagship format. The agreement also covers JD's Mexican ecommerce business, which Axo will run using JD's brand and intellectual property alongside its own-label and exclusive ranges in footwear, apparel and accessories.

This is JD's first entry into Mexico and extends a North American presence in the US and Canada that accounted for 38 per cent of group sales in the year to 31 January 2026. The group points to a population above 130m, roughly 40 per cent of it under 25, and an activewear market worth around £4.8bn that IMARC forecasts will approach £8bn by 2034. Chief executive Régis Schultz framed the deal as part of the "JD Brand First" strategy.

Grupo Axo operates in Mexico, Chile, Peru and Uruguay for brands including Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and The North Face. JD and Courir already run 75 franchise stores across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

IADS Notes: Mexico is becoming the market where foreign fascias arrive through local operators rather than on their own balance sheets. El Puerto de Liverpool agreed weeks earlier to run Primark in the country under a franchise model built on its Glam brand-licensing entity, with Primark's only prior franchised stores operated by Alshaya in the Middle East (WWD, September 2026), while Sfera is taking its renovated format into Mexico through the mix of owned and franchised operations El Corte Inglés uses abroad (Modaes, November 2025). The capital-light logic is the same one Marks & Spencer applied when it relaunched in the Philippines with MAP instead of withdrawing (Press Release, June 2026). For department stores the competitive question is where sports fashion sits: Gymshark chose Engelhorn and Breuninger to reach German shoppers (Fashion United, February 2026), whereas JD arrives with a 140-store monobrand network in a category whose growth is slowing to 3 to 5 per cent a year through 2029 (BCG, September 2025).

JD Sports enters Mexico with 140-store Grupo Axo franchise