Next upgrades outlook after strong quarterly performance
Next has raised its sales and profit outlooks after a strong second quarter performance.
In a trading statement for the 13 weeks to 26 July, the retailer said its full price sales climbed by 10.5% year-on-year, which was £49 million ahead of guidance and predicted growth of 6.5%.
UK full price sales rose by 7.8% overall after online and store sales increased by 9.5% and 5.6% respectively.
Next said its performance in the period was boosted by better than expected weather and the impact of the cyber-attack at Marks & Spencer.
Subscribe to TRBMeanwhile, international sales grew faster than expected after Next’s digital marketing efforts were more effective than anticipated.
As a result, Next has increased its guidance for second half full price sales from +3.5% to +4.5%. This will add a further £27 million of full price sales to its forecast.
The retailer has also upped its full year guidance for pre-tax profit by £25 million to £1.105 billion.
However, Next is maintaining its second half guidance for UK sales at growth of 1.9% due to the impact of the UK increase in employers’ national insurance contributions, which is said is still filtering through to the economy.
It added: “In the UK, we believe we exceeded expectations in Q2 as a result of better summer weather and trading disruption at a major competitor. We do not expect either of these factors to have a material effect in the second half, and so we are not increasing our guidance for UK sales in H2.”
