The U.K. clothing and houseware retailer has announced better-than-expected trading in recent weeks - http://www.stockopedia.com/news/announcement/NXT/090721nxt000285.htm
Sales of summer clothing have benefited from much better weather than last year. We estimate that the warm temperatures have improved these Next Retail sales by between 2% and 3%, which will put sales for the first half ahead of the guidance given on 6 May. In addition, we have been much happier with the design and fashion content of our ranges across all product areas.
The company said it had added GBP15 million to its internal profit forecast:
As a result of better full price Next Retail sales and improved clearance rates, we have added a further GBP15m to our internal profit forecast for the first half. Our product negotiations and sourcing have gone better than planned and we now anticipate that our bought in gross margin for the second half will be better than expected. As a result we have also added GBP15m to our internal profit forecast for the second half.
However, Next warned against a similar performance in the second half.
It is very early to give a sales range, however, at this stage we estimate that like-for-like sales in the second half will be in the range of -3.5% to -6.5%.
Still, it's nice to see a positive surprise for once!
