LONDON (Reuters) -British fashion retailer Next on Thursday raised its profit guidance for the 2021-22 year for the second time in two months as it reported better than expected first quarter trading.
The group, which trades from about 500 stores as well as online, raised its central guidance for 2021-22 pre-tax profit to 720 million pounds ($1.00 billion) from the 700 million pounds forecast in April after full price sales in the 13 weeks to May 1 fell 1.5% on two years ago.
Next’s previous guidance assumed first quarter sales would be down 10% versus the same period in the 2019-20 year – the last full financial year before the pandemic hit. It said it beat this forecast by 75 million pounds.
However, the group said it had not raised its sales guidance for the rest of the year, which it maintained at up 3% versus two years ago.
Next said first quarter retail sales (stores) were down 76% on two years ago, reflecting COVID-19 lockdowns, while online sales increased 65%.
($1 = 0.7191 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Michael Holden and Sarah Young)
