Next sees sales recover
Total sales increase of 14.5 per cent
May 14 2003
Next is starting to see its sales pick up, but consumer spending is still below normal levels.
The UK clothing retailer saw store sales grow by 15 per cent in the first fourteen weeks of the new financial year, with Next Directory home shopping sales up 13 per cent. Taken together, sales for the Next brand grew by 14.5 per cent.
In the stores, like-for-like sales are up 1.3 per cent, below the 3 to 5 per cent like-for-like growth which chief executive Simon Woolfson told shareholders is normal.
However, the position is better than the flat like-for-likes reported for the first seven weeks.
With some stores directly affected by new store openings and extensions, underlying sales in the 262 stores which have not been affected by new space are 3.2 per cent ahead of last year.
