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(Alliance News) - Next PLC on Friday upped its annual profit guidance and said it expects further improvement in financial 2021 after fourth-quarter performance came in ahead of internal forecasts.
The FTSE 100-listed home and fashion retailer reported that total full price sales - which include interest income - grew by 5.2% on a year before in the period from October 27 to December 28. Next said the result was 1.1% ahead of its internal forecasts.
"We believe our sales performance in the period was helped by a much colder November than last year and improved stock availability in both our Retail stores and Online," Next said in its statement Friday.
Therefore, the clothing, footwear and home products retailer increased its pretax profit guidance for the financial year to the end of January by GBP2 million to GBP727 million, which will represent a 0.6% growth on last year.
Next said it expects full price sales growth of 3.9% in financial 2020, which is 0.3 percentage point ahead of its guidance given in October.
Looking further ahead, Next said it expects to deliver a 3.0% full price sales growth in financial 2021, resulting in pretax profit growth of 1% to GBP734 million. This guidance is based on a 52-week sales period. However, Next highlighted that the financial year to the end of January 2021 will be a 53 week year, resulting in an additional week of sales, which is expected to generate an extra GBP13 million of profit.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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