Weak beacon

3 January 2019 By Aimee Donnellan Follow @aimeedonnellan

The retailer reported better-than-expected Christmas sales, helped by its larger online presence. But weak store sales suggest many high street peers, like Debenhams, are still on shaky ground. And even Next’s more diversified business is barely growing.

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British clothing retailer Next on Jan. 3 reported a rise in sales in the run-up to Christmas in line with its own expectations, confounding fears of poor festive trading.

Next, the first major listed retailer to update on Christmas trading, said sales rose 1.5 percent in the period from Oct. 28 to Dec. 29, the bulk of its fourth quarter, assuming no discounts. That compared to growth of 2 percent in the third quarter.

For the year ending January 2019 Next expects sales to grow by 3.2 percent and pretax profit of 723 million pounds. It was previously forecasting sales growth of 3 percent and pretax profit of 727 million pounds.

Next said it expects sales to grow by 1.7 percent in the year ending January 2020, and for pretax profit to decline by 1 percent to 715 million pounds.

Shares in Next were up around 5 percent at 4388 pence by 0933 GMT on Jan. 3.

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