LONDON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The boss of British clothing
retailer Next has attributed a disappointing start to
trading in the first few weeks of the autumn season to warm
September weather rather than Brexit uncertainty.
"That's not just a guess," Chief Executive Simon Wolfson
told Reuters, pointing out that last week when the north of
England and Scotland was significantly cooler than the south,
the trading performance of the two regions diverged by 10%.
"It's a continuation of the trend that we've seen for some
time now - people won't buy clothing unless they actually need
it. They're not going to go out and buy their winter knitwear
until it gets cold," he said.
Wolfson said Next had seen no evidence that Brexit
uncertainty was impacting sales of small ticket items, adding
that Brexit has become: "The reach-to explanation for everything
in the economy."
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)
Next (NXT)
