next
The UK’s second largest clothing retailer, Next has warned that consumer spending is likely to slow after the General Election as the new government takes stricter measures to tackle the budget deficit.
Next does expect sales and profits to improve during 2010, but they remain ‘very cautious in our outlook for the year ahead.’
Next reports that sales for the business increased in the 13weeks to end of April 2010, by 2.2% over the same quarter in 2009, but that high street sales had actually fallen by 0.8% in the period.
The Next Directory catalogue and online sales put a smile on the faces of the board as sales increased by 7.2% in that area, making up for the poorer performance of the chain of retail outlets.
The figures suggest that the public are still spending, although not necessarily physically travelling to the high street stores and comes as no real surprise as online spending continues to grow in the UK.
Next said it was on track to achieve a full-year profit towards the top end of market expectations, with growth in sales and dividends expected.
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