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LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Next, Britain's secondbiggest clothing retailer by sales value, reported a 19.3percent rise in first-half profit, with growth at both itsstores and home shopping business.
The group, which trades from over 500 stores in Britain andIreland, about 200 stores overseas, and through its Directoryinternet and catalogue business, said pretax profits were 324.2million pounds (525 million US dollar) in the six months toJuly, up from 271.8 million pounds in the same period last year.
Next is outperforming rivals, such as Marks & Spencer, because of a strong online offer, a constant stream ofnew store openings and diversification into new product areas,such as homewares, as well as new overseas markets.
The group said on Thursday that its strong performance hadin some part been down to external factors, such as theimproving economy, low interest rates and availability ofcredit, which may be less favourable next year.
Next reiterated the guidance it issued in July, when itraised its outlook for annual sales and profit for the secondtime in three months, forecasting 2014-15 sales growth of 7-10percent and a pretax profit of 775-815 million pounds, up 11-17percent.
The retailer also provided more specific guidance about thesales target, predicting third-quarter growth of 10 percent andfourth-quarter growth of 4 percent, due to the toughcomparatives it expects.
(1 US dollar = 0.6172 British pound) (Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Jane Merriman)