Next has issued an unscheduled trading update saying that trading in the last seven weeks has been materially better than the guidance it issued in May and that it is updating the market accordingly.
Full price sales for the first seven weeks of the second quarter were up +9.3 per cent over last year, as compared with its guidance of -5 per cent. The retailer had also beaten its full price sales estimates by £93m. Accordingly, its full price sales guidance has been increased by £137m and full year profit guidance by £40m to £835m.
The business said that the over-performance could be attributed to the arrival of warmer weather after the cold and wet month of April. It also flagged the timing of annual salary increases triggering a significant uplift in real household income.
For this latter reason, it does not expect that the current performance will continue at the same level going forward, albeit it has moderately improved its guidance for the rest of the year.
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