LONDON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - British clothing chain Next
reported a 2.7% rise in first-half profit as robust
online sales more than offset a decline at its stores.
The firm, which trades from over 500 stores in the UK and
Ireland, about 200 stores in 40 countries overseas and its
Directory online business, said on Thursday it was also
maintaining its guidance for its full 2019-20 year.
Next made a pretax profit of 319.6 million pounds in the 26
weeks to end-July 27, up from 311.1 million pounds in the same
period last year, on group sales up 3.7% to 2.06 billion pounds.
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)