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LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - British clothing retailer Next
on Wednesday raised its full-year profit outlook for the fourth
time in six months as it reported a 5.9% rise in first-half
profit on a two-year basis, benefiting from strong trading since
COVID-19 restrictions ended.
Next, which trades from about 500 stores as well as
online, made a pretax profit of 347 million pounds ($474
million) in the six months to July, on full-price sales up 8.8%
versus 2019 - before the COVID-19 pandemic started to disrupt
trading.
The group said full-price sales in the last eight weeks
increased 20% versus 2019, materially exceeding its
expectations.
It raised its full-price sales guidance for the rest of the
2021-22 year to up 10%, versus up 6% previously, and its
forecast for pretax profit to 800 million pounds, 36 million
pounds ahead of its previous guidance.
Next has shown great resilience during the pandemic,
benefiting from its long-established and well invested online
operations.
Rivals with weaker or no online business, notably Primark
, saw large falls in sales. Others, such as Topshop-owner
Arcadia, and Debenhams have gone bust.
Shares in Next, up 37% over the last year, closed Tuesday at
8,080 pence, valuing the business at 10.9 billion pounds.
($1 = 0.7311 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle and Kate
Holton)
