Next PLC on Thursday maintained its sales and profit guidance for the coming financial year after reporting record figures last year.
Shares in Next, the Leicester, England-based retailer, jumped 4.7% to 8,906.00 pence in London on Thursday.
Statutory pretax profit in the 52 weeks to January 27 rose 17% to £1.02 billion from £869.3 million the year prior. Next said this included a £109 million exceptional gain from the Reiss acquisition, bought last September.
Excluding this, and brand amortisation, pretax profit climbed 5% to £918 million from £875 million last year, £3 million ahead of previous guidance.
Next said total group sales climbed 5.9% to £5.84 billion from £5.52 billion with Next full price sales up 4.0%.
Online sales rose 5.0% to £3.16 billion from £3.01 billion, retail sales were flat at £1.87 billion, while finance income improved by 7% to £293 million from £274 million.
Statutory revenue grew 9.1% to £5.49 billion from £5.03 billion, while the cost of sales increased 7.1% to £3.03 billion from £2.83 billion.
Chief Executive Simon Wolfson said: ‘Last year was much better than we anticipated at this time last year, and the group has delivered its highest ever levels of revenue and profit.’
‘Perhaps more encouragingly, we enter the financial year with new avenues of growth along with a cost base that feels under control.’
Next said its outlook for the current financial year has changed ‘little’ since its January trading statement.
‘On the face of it, the consumer environment looks more benign than it has for a number of years, albeit there are some significant uncertainties,’ the company said.
Positive factors included wages rising faster than prices, and a reverse in selling price inflation. But these were mitigated by concerns of a weakening employment market and mortgage rates.
Next said it does not currently anticipate any material adverse impact from stock delays from the events in the Suez Canal.
Next predicts underlying full price sales growth of 2.5% and total group sales, including subsidiaries, of 6.0%.
Pretax profit is expected to grow by 4.6% to £960 million with post-tax earnings per share forecast to rise 4.9% to 606.3p.
But Next expects its sale performance to swing throughout the year.
‘Within the first half we anticipate that the quarters will perform very differently, with sales in the first quarter up 5% and flat in the second. This is because first quarter sales last year were poor (down 0.7%), with unusually cold and wet weather in the run up to Easter; in contrast second quarter was very strong (up 6.9%), with exceptionally warm weather at the end of May and throughout June,’ the company explained.
Next declared a total dividend of 207p per share, little changed from the 206p paid in the previous financial year.
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