By James Davey
LONDON (Reuters) -British fashion retailer Next notched up its full-year profit guidance for the fourth time in eight months as it reported a stronger-than-expected 10.5% rise in full-price sales for its third quarter to October 25.
Shares in the FTSE 100 company were up 5% on Wednesday, extending gains this year to 48%, after it said sales exceeded expectations both in the UK and overseas.
Next, run by CEO Simon Wolfson, has over 800 stores in the UK and Ireland, including Reiss, Joules and FatFace stores, plus an online presence in more than 70 countries selling the Next brand and more than 700 others. With the UK accounting for around 80% of its sales, it is often considered a gauge of how British consumers are faring.
The group said it now expected to report a pretax profit of 1.135 billion pounds ($1.52 billion) for the year to January 2026, up from previous guidance of 1.105 billion pounds and the 1.011 billion pounds the retailer made in 2024/25 when it breached the 1 billion pounds mark for the first time.
Next said in September it expected the UK economy to weaken and its sales growth to slow to 4.5% in its second half from the 10.5% it reported for its second quarter, when it benefited from favourable weather and a cyberattack at rival Marks & Spencer.
Third-quarter UK sales increased 5.4%, with Next citing the stronger-than-expected positive effect of improved stock levels compared with last year when disruption in Bangladesh and constraints in global freight capacity delayed deliveries.
Overseas sales jumped 38.8%, partly reflecting Next spending more on digital marketing than previously anticipated.
The group also increased its forecast for full-price sales in the fourth quarter to 7.0%.
“Next should benefit from further real wage growth in the UK albeit it will remain somewhat sensitive to the employment outlook and cost of borrowing for the consumer,” analysts at RBC Europe said.
($1 = 0.7451 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle, Sarah Young and Tomasz Janowski)
