Next reports strong sales
Next, the country’s second-biggest clothing retailer, said a strong March, when the weather was fine, offset a weak April, when the cold and rain kept shoppers at home, enabling the firm to hold its profit outlook for the year.
“Pretty much sales went up and down with the temperature gauge,” chief executive Simon Wolfson said.
“March was good, we had some weeks that were double digit up and April was the reverse,” he said.
Although April this year was the wettest Britain has experienced since records began Wolfson does not expect too much damage.
“When you get a prolonged period of unusual weather it does affect sales but on the whole these things tend to even out over the year,” he said.
Many retailers are struggling as consumers grapple with higher prices, muted wage growth and government austerity measures, as well as worries about job security, a stagnant housing market and fallout from the euro zone debt crisis.
Next has generally defied the gloom, helped by its strong online offer and new store openings.
Wolfson, a prominent euroskeptic and supporter of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party who sits in the upper house of Parliament, said he did not expect news that the country had dipped back into a technical recession to prompt a fresh slump in consumer confidence.
“Who’s going to say ‘we’re in technical recession so I’m not going to go out and buy a new pair of trousers’?,” he said.
Shares in Next rose 2 percent after the firm said total sales increased 1.4 per cent in the 13 weeks to April 28, its fiscal first quarter.
Retail sales fell 3.9 per cent, versus forecasts in a range of flat to down five per cent, while sales at its Directory online and catalogue business were up 11.8 per cent versus forecasts of a 10-15 per cent rise.