Clothes retailer Next shrugs off UK cost-of-living crisis
Source: AFP
PAY ATTENTION: Celebrate South African innovators, leaders and trailblazers with us! Click to check out Women of Wonder 2022 by Briefly News!
Shares in UK clothing retailer Next soared to the top of the London market Thursday after it said colder weather boosted purchases despite a cost-of-living crisis caused by sky-high inflation.
Next's share price jumped seven percent to £65.26 ($78.53) on the benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was up modestly overall.
Sales of full-price items rose around five percent in the nine weeks to December 30 from a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
That beat its own guidance for a modest decline and sparked an upgrade to its final 2022 earnings due in March.
Annual pre-tax profit was now expected to climb 4.5 percent to £860 million ($1.0 billion) from the previous year.
That compared with prior guidance of £840 million.
PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy!
Next said it experienced a "dramatic boost" to sales when the weather turned colder in December.
"We believe that the strength of demand for cold weather products in December was partly a result of pent-up demand from an unusually warm October and November," it added.
However, the group expects sales to dip 1.5 percent over the year as a whole, with consumer sentiment dented by persistently high inflation.
Source: AFP
