It was a good year for Next, which achieved a 3.1 percent
growth in sales and a 9 percent uplift in underlying pretax profit for the 12
months to January 2013. Next’s Directory arm performed particularly strongly,
with sales up 9.5 percent to £1.19 billion. In comparison, high street sales
were flat at £2.19 billion. In a true example of multichannel retailing,
however, the stores and web work together at Next: over 20 percent of Directory
sales are delivered through stores and over 60 percent of the returns come back
that way, said chief executive Lord Wolfson. International online sales grew
from £33 million to £54 million and contributed £10 million to profit. In the
year ahead Next expects its overseas online business to grow to at least £70
million, adding a further £4 million to profit. Lord Wolfson also said trading
in the start of new financial year has been slower than expected, but he
expects it to improve once temperatures return to seasonal levels.
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