// Next sales rise 17% in third quarter
// Next’s full-price store sales during the period were down 6% on a two-year basis
// Online sales offset the drop and were up 40% overall in the third quarter
Next has recorded an uplift in sales for the third quarter, but has warned on demand slowing down and availability issues for the remainder of its financial year.
The fashion retailer saw a 17 per cent increase in sales in the 13 weeks to October 30 compared with 2019 levels, with sales in the final five weeks of the period up 14 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.
This is ahead of the retailer’s forecast of a sales rise of 10 per cent on pre-pandemic levels during its third quarter.
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Next’s full-price store sales during the period were down six per cent on a two-year basis, but online sales offset the drop and were up 40 per cent overall in the third quarter and 50 per cent in the year to date.
The company has maintained its fourth-quarter full-price sales guidance forecast of a sales uplift of 10 per cent alongside its earlier forecast of full-year profit before tax of £800 million.
Next now expects “growth in the fourth quarter to be lower” than its third quarter.
This is due to price increases in essential goods such as fuel moderate demand for discretionary purchases and the effects of “pent-up demand” declining.
Next also said stock availability “has improved but remains challenging” and that it expects “delays in our international supply chain being compounded by labour shortages in the UK transport and warehousing networks”.
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