Next, Britain's second biggest clothing retailer by sales value, today reported a 19.3% rise in first-half profit, with growth at both its stores and home shopping business.
The group trades from over 500 stores in Britain and Ireland, about 200 stores overseas, and through its Directory internet and catalogue business.
It said pretax profits came to £324.2m in the six months to July, up from £271.8m the same time last year.
Next is outperforming rivals, such as Marks & Spencer, because of a strong online offer, a constant stream of new store openings and diversification into new product areas, such as homewares, as well as new overseas markets.
The group said that its strong performance had in some part been down to external factors, such as the improving economy, low interest rates and availability of credit, which may be less favourable next year.
The company also said today that it plans to open a warehouse hub in Northern Ireland, its first outside England, to shorten delivery times for online orders.
Next said it is not competitive on deliveries to Ireland because it dispatches all its orders from warehouses in the north of England. To address this deficiency, it said it intends to open a warehouse in Northern Ireland, though it gave no specific location.
The company reiterated the guidance it issued in July, when it raised its outlook for annual sales and profit for the second time in three months, forecasting 2014-15 sales growth of 7-10% and a pretax profit of £775-815m, up 11-17%.
The retailer also provided more specific guidance about the sales target, predicting third-quarter growth of 10% and fourth-quarter growth of 4%, due to the tough comparatives it expects.
