Next reflects on a successful half year. The British retailer has revised its profit expectations upwards. While pure players Asos and Boohoo, also from the United Kingdom, struggle to maintain their online sales, Next continues to grow digitally, especially abroad.
This is evident from Next’s recent quarterly and half-year reports. The revenue growth of 8.4 percent at the group level is partly due to the acquisition of the lifestyle brand FatFace and the increased stake in Reiss. However, the company is also achieving incremental growth.
Full-price sales
Next highlights the increase of full-price sales, with a 4.4 percent increase over the past half year, without specifying exact amounts. The figures show that full-price sales in Next stores have declined, but they have grown online. Particularly outside its home country, Next managed to sell more products at full price digitally. The growth amounts to 22.8 percent over six months and it significantly outperformed Next’s forecasts:
‘Overseas sales online were much better than expected.’
With these international digital growth figures, Next stands out positively compared to other online clothing sellers form the United Kingdom like Asos and Boohoo, who are experiencing revenue declines and losses. Asos hopes to return to profitability with Shein-like fast production processes. Boohoo is trying to turn the tide with its new own marketplace.
Profit forecasts
The good results have prompted Next to revise its profit forecast for the entire fiscal year upwards by 23 million euros (20 million pounds), to 1.14 billion euros (980 million pounds) on a revenue of 7.2 billion euros (6.2 billion pounds). This would represent a profit increase of 6.7 percent compared to the previous fiscal year. “The profit improvement came from additional sales and cost savings, mainly in logistics,” reports Next.
