Next, Britain's number two clothing retailer, posted an increase in second-half sales and kept its full-year profit forecast, justifying its strategy of not discounting prior to Christmas.
Kicking off the post-Christmas UK retail reporting season today, Next, which has a long standing policy of never going on sale before Christmas, said it expected a year to the end of January 2012 pre-tax profit about £7m either side of £565m.
Next said total sales, excluding VAT, rose 3.1% year-on-year in the August to December 24 period. That compares with analysts' forecasts of a rise of 3-4% and an increase of 3.3% in the third quarter.
Sales at its over 500 stores in the UK and Ireland fell 2.7%, but this was offset by a 16.9% leap in sales at its home shopping service Next Directory.
The firm said it was budgeting for modest growth in overall sales in the 2011-12 year with pre-tax profit only slightly up on 2010-11.
"We anticipate that Next will generate in the order of £200m of surplus cash after capital investment, tax and dividends which we intend to return to shareholders through share buybacks," it added.
