5th Jan 2005 07:00
Next PLC05 January 2005 Date: Embargoed until 07.00am, Wednesday 5 January 2005 Contacts: Simon Wolfson, Chief Executive David Keens, Group Finance Director NEXT PLC Tel: 08454 567777 Alistair Mackinnon-Musson Philip Dennis Hudson Sandler Tel: 020 7796 4133 Email: [email protected] Photographs available: http://www.next.co.uk/press/ (or Hudson Sandler, as above) NEXT PLC TRADING STATEMENT NEXT Retail sales for the period from 3 August to 24 December 2004 were up 12.1%compared to the same period last year. For clarity, the comparative period lastyear includes the same number of days as this year. Like-for-like sales in the285 stores that were unaffected by new openings were up 2.9%. Totallike-for-like sales, including the 49 stores that were directly affected by newopenings, were up 0.5%. NEXT Directory sales were up 13.4% in the period. Taken together, sales for NEXT Retail and NEXT Directory were up 12.4%. Clearance rates in our end of season Sale have been below our expectations, onstock levels that were higher than originally planned. As a result we havelowered our internal profit forecast by £5m. We currently expect Next Grouppre-tax profit for the full year to be in the range £415m to £425m, which isbroadly in line with market expectations. We expect to issue our preliminary announcement of results for the 52 weeks to29 January 2005 on Wednesday 23 March 2005. - ENDS - This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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