Next ups profit forecast on strong Christmas sales

Next, Britain's second largest clothing retailer, raised its annual profit forecast after fourth quarter sales came in significantly ahead of its expectations, helped by a policy of not discounting before Christmas.

The firm, whose shares have risen 47 per cent over the last year, also said today it would pay a special dividend of 50 pence a share at a cost of £75 million and outlined a plan for more payouts rather than share buybacks.

Next said it now expected a year to end-January 2014 pretax profit of £684-£700 million, ahead of its previous guidance of £650-£680 million.

The group, which unlike rivals has a long standing strategy of never going on sale before Christmas, said total sales rose 11.9 per cent in the November 1st to December 24th period and are now up 5.0 per cent year to date.

That compares with a rise of 4.3 per cent in its third quarter and previous company guidance for full year sales growth of 2.0-3.75 per cent. The strong performance stands in start contrast to Debenhams, Britain's second largest department store group, which issued a profit warning on Tuesday, blaming the highly promotional pre-Christmas promotional environment.

That was also an ominous sign for Britain’s biggest clothing retailer Marks & Spencer, whose rare move to slash 30 per cent off clothing prices in the run up to Christmas has prompted fears it too had suffered poor trading.

Alongside Next in the winners category was John Lewis, the country's biggist department store group, which also posted a strong trading update yesterday.

Next attributed the step-up in Christmas trade to improvements in its seasonal knitwear, nightwear and gift offer. It said increased confidence in online deliveries meant that more customers also continued to trade with the Next Directory internet and catalogue business right up to the weekend before Christmas.

Next Directory sales soared 21 per cent, while sales at the firm's over 500 stores in Britain and Ireland and about 200 stores in over 30 countries overseas increased 7.7 per cent.

The retailer cautioned however it was very unlikely that the strength shown in the Christmas quarter would continue through the first half of the new financial year. Shares in Next closed yesterday at 5,530 pence, valuing the business at £8.63 billion.

Reuters