LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - Next, Britain's secondbiggest clothing retailer, raised its guidance for annual salesand profit for the second time in three months after a strongsecond quarter performance, helped by favourable weather and newstore openings.
The group, which trades from over 500 stores in Britain andIreland and about 200 stores in more than 40 countries overseas,as well as through its Directory internet and cataloguebusiness, said on Tuesday it now expected a 2014-15 pretaxprofit of 775-815 million pounds ($1.32-$1.38 billion).
That compares to previous guidance of 750-790 millionpounds, and would represent growth of 11-17 percent on the 695million pounds made in 2013-14.
Next said its total sales rose 10.7 percent in the 26 weeksto July 26, having been up 10.8 percent in the first quarter.
Store sales rose 7.5 percent, while Next Directory saleswere up 16.2 percent.
Next raised its full year sales guidance to 7-10 percentfrom 5.5-9.5 percent previously.($1 = 0.5892 British Pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)
Next (NXT)
