* H1 pretax profit down 1.5 pct to 342 mln stg
* Sales from full-priced goods down 0.3 pct (Adds details)
LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - British clothing retailer Next reported a 1.5 percent fall in first-half profit onThursday and said trading since July had been challenging andvolatile.
Next has been Britain's most successful clothing retailer ofthe last decade but warned in March that 2016 could be itstoughest year since 2008. Its shares have fallen by over aquarter so far this year.
"In March we predicted a challenging year and this has beenreflected in our first-half results," the group said, aftersales from full-priced goods fell by 0.3 percent.
The firm, which trades from more than 500 shops in Britainand Ireland, some 200 mainly franchised stores overseas andonline, said it made a pretax profit of 342 million pounds ($453 million) in the six months to the end of July.
It retained its full-year sales guidance but said itexpected to have a clearer picture of trading conditions at thebeginning of November when it reports its third-quarter sales.
"There has been some talk of a general retail bounce in Julyand whilst Next did enjoy very strong sales in July, this wasdriven by a much larger end-of-season sale," the company said.
"Full price sales in July remained subdued, so we do notbelieve that July trading represented any change in underlyingconsumer spending patterns. Trading since July ...has remainedchallenging and volatile."
($1 = 0.7553 pounds) (Reporting by Kate Holton, editing by James Davey and JasonNeely)
Next (NXT)
