LONDON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Next, Britain's secondlargest clothing retailer, raised its annual profit forecastafter fourth quarter sales came in significantly ahead of itsprevious guidance.
The firm said on Friday it expected a year to end-January2014 pretax profit of 684-700 million pounds ($1.12-$1.15billion).
Its previous forecast was 650-680 million pounds.
Next, which unlike rivals has a long standing policy ofnever going on sale before Christmas, said total sales rose 11.9percent in the Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 period and are now up 5.0percent year to date.
That compares with a rise of 4.3 percent in its thirdquarter and previous company guidance for full year sales growthof 2.0-3.75 percent.
Next was again reliant on a strong performance from itsDirectory internet and catalogue business, where sales soared 21percent.
Sales at its over 500 stores in Britain and Ireland andabout 200 stores in over 30 countries overseas increased 7.7percent.
Next (NXT)
