Next, Britain’s second-biggest clothing retailer, bucked the gloom in the sector, raising profit guidance and beating targets for first-half sales growth, helped by a storming performance from its Directory home shopping business.

The firm, which trades from over 500 stores in the UK and Ireland, nearly 200 stores in over 30 countries overseas, and the Next Directory online and catalogue business, indicated a 2012-13 pretax profit of £575-£620 million.

That was up from a previous expectation of £560-610 million and equates to growth of 0.8-8.7 per cent on 2011-12.

Many British retailers are hurting as consumers deal with austerity. – (Reuters)