Next PLC on Wednesday raised its full-year outlook for the third time in three months after sales topped expectations.
The Leicester-based clothing and homewares retailer said full price sales in the third-quarter to October 26 rose 7.6% on-year, beating guidance of 5.0%.
‘We believe the strong performance was driven by the early arrival of colder weather this year, versus an unusually warm September and early October last year,’ Next said in a statement.
For the fourth-quarter, it now expects full price sales growth of 3.5%, its outlook lifted from 2.5%.
Full-year pretax profit guidance has been upgraded to £1.01 billion from £995 million. In September, Next had raised its outlook from £980 million, itself increased from £960 million in August.
The profit measures excludes items such as the cost of brand amortisation. The new guidance would represent a 9.5% rise on the year prior when the firm reported pretax profit of £918 million.
In response, shares in Next rose 1.5% to 10,225.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning. The wider FTSE 100 was down 0.4%.
Next expects total group sales for the full year of £6.27 billion, up 7.4% on last year, and higher than prior guidance of £6.23 billion.
This is 2.5% higher than expected growth in full price sales of 4.9%.
‘The difference is the result of acquisitions completed during the last year. We acquired 97% of FatFace in October 2023 and increased our equity share in Reiss in September 2023 and June 2024; we now have a 74% shareholding in Reiss,’ Next explained.
Next will report on Christmas trading on January 7.
Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
