Next has posted its annual pre-tax profit, reporting profits of over £1 billion for the first time in the company’s history – 10.1% uplift year-on-year.
The clothing and homeware retailer has since raised its sales and profit forecast for 2025, with sales expected to increase by 4.3%
Despite the profit growth, Next cautioned that “the UK economy is expected to remain challenging in the near term, with rising employer taxes following the October Budget expected to reduce consumer spending and impact the broader economy.”
Online UK sales climbed by 4.6% during the period and profit for the online division increased 8%.
Third-party brand sales rose 10% during the period, driven by the retailer’s LABEL platform.
“For the year ahead, we are budgeting for retail full price sales, on a like-for-like basis, to be down -2.0%. The addition of new space is expected to add +1.7% to Retail sales, meaning that we expect Retail full price sales to be down -0.3% versus last year,” the company said in its statement.”
