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LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - British clothing retailer Next
beat guidance with a 17% rise in third-quarter
full-price sales compared to 2019, before the pandemic disrupted
trading, but maintained its full-year profit guidance as it
thinks growth will slow.
Next, which trades from about 500 stores and online, had
reported in September that full-price sales in the first eight
weeks of its fiscal third quarter had risen 20%.
It said on Wednesday they had risen 14% in the final five
weeks of the period to Oct. 30. This was ahead of its forecast
of 10% growth.
Third-quarter online sales rose 40%, while store sales were
down 6.1%.
However, Next kept its guidance for full-price sales in the
fourth quarter to rise 10% versus 2019-20 and for a full-year
pretax profit of 800 million pounds ($1.1 billion), up 6.9%
compared to 2019-20.
"We do not expect sales to continue at the level seen in
Q3," it said.
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)
