Next shares up despite 8 percent profit fall

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Annual profits at high street retailer Next (LON:NXT) fell 8.1 percent over 2017, saying that the year had been “challenging in several different ways”.

Pre-tax profit fell to £726.1 million, in line with the company’s guidance, with total group sales declining by 0.5 percent to £4.1 billion. In-store sales fell by a whopping 7 percent, marginally offset by an 11.2 increase in sales online.

However, the group kept its full-year dividend steady at 158.0p per share.

“2017 was challenging in several different ways. A weak clothing market coincided with self-inflicted product-ranging errors and omissions.

“At the same time, the business has had to manage the costs, systems requirements and opportunities of an accelerating structural shift in spending from retail stores to online,” the company commented.

The group forecast total full-price sales growth of 1 percent for the 2018 year, compared to 0.7 percent growth on the same metric last year.

Shares in Next are currently trading up 1.44 percent at 4,695.00 (0810GMT).

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Miranda is the online editor of UK Investor Magazine. Her interests include private equity, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, gender equality and coffee.