Next widens guidance as sales remain unpredictable

Poor but unpredictable sales in the year to date saw high street fashion retailer Next widen it guidance for the year in a trading update on Wednesday.

The FTSE 100 firm said total sales from 31 January to 2 May were down 0.2%, with full-price sales down 0.9% - at the lower end of its full-year sales guidance of -1% to 4%.

“We believe it is unlikely (but possible) that sales will deteriorate further, and we have seen a significant improvement over the last few days as temperatures have risen,” Next’s board said in a statement.

However, given the continued unpredictability and uncertainty, it lowered the range of full price sales guidance to between -3.5% and 3.5%. Group profit is now expected to change between -8.9% and 3.7%, for a total group profit before tax of between £748m and £852m.

Earnings per share are now tipped to move between -6.6% and 6.4%.

The group said cash flow remained strong, and it still expected to generate £350m of surplus cash after interest, tax, capital expenditure and share buybacks of £181m.