Full-price sales at Next were up +4.4% (and total group sales +8.0%) in the six months to July 2024, the retailer reports, with group PBT at £452m (up +7.1% YoY).
The UK business (as expected) only grew by +1.0%, "held back by tough comparisons with last year’s exceptionally warm Q2", which prompted a fashion sales spike, says Next.
More recently, full-price sales over the first six weeks of H2 "materially exceeded expectations" and were up +6.9%, prompting Next to upgrade its H2 full-price sales growth to +3.7% YoY (from +2.5%), and its full-year full-price sales guidance to +4.0%, with total group sales up +6.6% – and an increase in full-year pre-tax profits by +£15m to £995m (up +8.4% on last year).
Full-price Home sales were up +6.8% YoY.
Next expects to open five new mainline stores this year, four of them in H2.
"This year feels like the start of a new phase in the company’s development. We enter this new era in a more positive frame of mind, with new avenues of growth and a more stable business.
"Retail sales have stabilised and, though the shift to online may not have run its course, its effects are much diminished – not least because retail is a much smaller part of our business."
