Next Half-Year Sales Better than Expected

Next has reported on half year sales for the year ended 31st July 2018.

Excerpts from the report follow and you can see the full report here.

First half full price sales were up +4.5% on last year (total sales including markdown +3.9%). This was ahead of the +1.0% guidance given in January and the +2.2% given in May.  

Group profit before tax was up +0.5% and Earnings Per Share were up +4.9%. We are declaring an ordinary interim dividend of 55p per share, which is up +3.8% on last year.

When we issued our August Trading Statement we believed that there was a high risk that the sales gained in July would be offset by losses in August. As it turned out, we did not experience any material loss of sales in August or early September, so we are now raising our central guidance for full year profit before tax by +£10m to £727m. This is broadly in line with last year’s profit of £726.1m and would deliver a growth in Earnings Per Share of +5.0%.

The UK retail market remains volatile, subject to powerful structural and cyclical changes. Many of these headwinds have not abated. As expected, sales in our stores (which now account for just under half of our turnover) continue to be challenging.

We believe the over-performance in the first half was flattered by the unusually warm summer and we remain cautious in our outlook for the rest of the year.

Next will report on third quarter trading, covering the thirteen weeks to 27 October 2018, on 31 October 2018.

Source : Insight DIY Team and Next

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