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LONDON (Alliance News) - Clothing and home retailer Next PLC raised its full-year trading expectations, saying Wednesday it now expects to see sales growth of up to 3.75% and a pretax profit of up to GBP680 million.
Next said it now expects a pretax profit of between GBP650 million and GBP680 million in the year to January 2014, up from its previous guidance of between GBP635 million and GBP675 million.
It said its now sees sales growth from both its stores and online business of between 2% and 3.75%, up from a previous guidance of 1.5% to 3.5%.
Next reported third-quarter sales growth of 4.3% and 3% growth in the year to date. It said that 1.9% of that sales growth came from new store space.
The retailer said sales from its high-street stores were up 0.4% in the quarter ended October 26, but were down 0.5% in the year to date.
By contrast it reported an 11% rise in online directory sales during the period. It said that in the year to date, online sales were up 9.2%.
Next said for that the full year it expects to see earnings-per-share growth of between 15% and 21%, boosted by a share buyback of at least GBP300 million.
Next said it expects to issue a sales update for the period to December 24 on January 4, 2014.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; rowenaharrisdoughty@alliancenews.com; @rharrisdoughty
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