Increased sales at high street retailer Next has generated an extra £10m of profit, the company announced in a trading update.
Profits are expected to reach £845m by the end of the financial year at the FTSE 100 constituent, a £10m upward revision, as sales have been better than anticipated.
Full price sales beat the company’s expectations by being up 6.9% across May and July.
For the six weeks up to 29 July the increase was 3.7% on the year before, when growth of 0.5% had been predicted.
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The extra £10m profit will come as the higher sales resulted in £16m of additional full price sales in the last six weeks and improved clearance rates in the summer sale.
Before entering the summer sale Next already had 22% less surplus stock compared to the year before.
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Despite sales surpassing the 0.5% target, Next has maintained that full price sales forecast for the second half of the year.
It’s not the first time in recent months that Next has beat forecasts.
When 2022 full year results were announced in March, Next also outpaced its own increased profit guidance by £10m after increasing its profit outlook in January as a result of far better than expected Christmas sales.
After Christmas Next reported sales were up nearly 5% in the nine weeks to 30 December on the same period in 2021, far outpacing the 2% reduction the retailer had forecast and £66m better than expected.
Official measures of retail sales, from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), showed the only month this year where sales fell was in March, due to the wet weather.
Next had been on a buying spree, purchasing brands in difficulty: JoJo Maman Bebe, Joules, Made.com and Cath Kidston.
