26th Mar 2026 09:11
(Alliance News) - Next PLC on Thursday hailed an "exceptional" financial year, with profit ahead of guidance, boosted by bumper international growth and a strong end-of-season sale.
The Leicester, England-based clothing, footwear and home products retailer said pretax profit increased 21% to GBP1.19 billion in the 52 weeks to January 31 from GBP987.0 million the year prior, ahead of GBP1.15 billion guidance provided in January.
This reflected better than expected full price sales in January, along with improved clearance rates in the end-of-season sale, the FTSE 100-listing said. Full price sales increased 11%, the firm added.
Total group sales rose 11% to GBP7.00 billion from GBP6.32 billion a year ago, ahead of Visible Alpha consensus of GBP6.96 billion. Statutory revenue grew 13% to GBP6.90 billion from GBP6.12 billion.
Post-tax earnings per share jumped 17% to 744.2 pence from 636.3p a year prior, ahead of 737p consensus.
In response, shares in Next jumped 5.5% to 12,695.00 pence each in London on Thursday. It was by far the best performing stock in the FTSE 100 which was down 0.8%.
Next called it an "exceptional" year, noting total full price UK sales growth of 7% and International growth of 35%.
Within the UK business, retail stores sales rose 3%, with online improving 9%.
Next said the exceptionally strong growth in international sales this year "has taken us by surprise".
Looking ahead to the financial year to January 2027, guidance for full price sales growth was maintained at 4.5%.
Guidance for UK sales growth was revised up to 2.2% from 1.6%, to reflect the "encouraging" sales performance in the first eight weeks of the financial year.
International growth expectations for the current financial year were pared to 14.3% from 16.5% to reflect the disruption seen since the start of the conflict in the Middle East.
Pretax profit guidance was nudged up to GBP1.21 billion, GBP8 million higher than the outlook given in January, reflecting the higher profit achieved in the financial year just ended.
Sales in the first eight weeks of the current financial year were "encouraging" in the UK and "strong" overseas up to the point the conflict began in the Middle East, Next said.
"Looking forward, we have not yet reached the period of unusually strong UK trading we experienced last year and, perhaps more importantly, instability in the Middle East – which represents around 6% of our total turnover – may continue to restrain growth in that region," Next said.
The retailer has accounted for GBP15 million of additional costs that are likely to arise from the conflict, such as fuel
and air freight, on the assumption that the disruption lasts for three months.
But Next said these costs have been offset by savings elsewhere, so does not affect guidance.
Next said it would provide a detailed update on the situation alongside its trading statement in May.
Next proposed a final dividend of 181p per share, up 15% from 158p a year prior, taking the total payout to 268p, up 15% from 233p a year ago.
The firm expects to return around GBP500 million to shareholders in financial 2027 through share buybacks, special dividends or other capital returns.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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