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LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - British clothing retailer Next on Wednesday cut profit guidance for its currentfinancial year and also warned on the outlook for the followingyear, saying it is preparing the company for tougher times.
Updating on Christmas trading Next said its central guidancewas for pretax profit of 792 million pounds ($971 million) forits year to Jan. 2017, down from 805 million pounds previously.
The firm also forecast a pretax profit of 680-780 millionpounds for its 2017-18 year, below analysts' average forecast of784 million pounds, according to Reuters data.
Next said full price sales in the 54 days to Dec. 24, thebulk of its fourth quarter. fell 0.4 percent.
That compares to a third quarter fall of 3.5 percent. ($1 = 0.8157 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)
