Strong online sales boost full year profit at Next

Next brand full price sales were up 4 percent, while brand total sales including markdown sales were up 3.5 percent on last year. The company said in a statement that group profit before tax was up 0.8 percent and earnings per share (EPS) were up 5.6 percent on last year. The company added that group profit of 728.5 million pounds was ahead of the guidance of 727 million pounds given in our January 2020 trading Statement due to better than expected full price sales in January.

Commenting on the future trading amid COVID-19 outbreak, Lord Wolfson, the company’s Chief Executive said: “We have no experience of a similar crisis so there is no way of predicting the extent that the effect coronavirus will have on our retail and online sales. The evidence we have from sales to date in the UK and from our small international websites in the worst affected countries is that demand will be the biggest issue and although the virus is likely to impact our operations, we do not believe this will be as damaging as the very significant drop in sales sustained both in retail and online. Online sales are likely to fare better than retail but will also suffer significant losses.”

Next online grows sales by 11.9 percent

The Next online platform delivered strong and profitable growth with full price sales up 11.9 percent and profits rising by 13 percent on last year. Net margin of 18.6 percent was up 0.2 percent on last year.

Total sales at Label were up 23 percent and full price sales were up 22 percent, while profit in the year was 77 million pounds, an increase of 17 percent on last year. Next said, overseas business had another good year, with full price sales up 23 percent and total sales including markdown sales up 26 percent, while profit was up 28 percent and the company achieved a net margin of 16 percent. Full price sales through our overseas website Nextdirect.com grew at 24 percent, while like-for-like sales via third-parties were up 35 percent.

Retail full price sales decline by 4.3 percent

Retail full price sales were down 4.3 percent, which was 0.8 percent ahead of the guidance given in September 2019 of 5.1 percent, while total retail sales including markdown sales were down 5.3 percent on last year. Profit was down 23 percent on last year and net margin reduced by 2 percent to 8.9 percent.

Next Sourcing (NS), the company’s internal sourcing agent, which procures around 38 percent of Next branded product reported profit increase of 2.4 million pounds to 32 million pounds. Sales in dollars were down 5 percent due to lower Next purchases, while profit in dollars was up 4.1 percent.

Lipsy clothing sales through Next Online were down 2.5 percent on last year and down 24 percent in retail stores. With the addition of beauty, overall sales via Next were up 5.4 percent. The company added that non-NEXT sales were down 13.7 percent, due to the winding up of the UK wholesale business. Underlying profit was 15.9 million pounds, down 7 percent on last year. After acquisition costs, net operating profit was 13 million pounds, up 18 percent.

Picture:Next media centre