Next has upped its full-year guidance for the third time this year following a rise in first-half pre-tax profit and better-than-expected sales.
Revenue rose to £2.5bn as retail sales saw a 0.5% lift and online sales jumped 5%.
The high-street rgiant saw pre-tax profit for the six months ended July 30 climb 4.8% to £420m compared with a profit of £401m the year before.
As a result, it now expects full-year pre-tax profit of £875m, up from £845m. This will be slightly higher than profits last year.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
Next has also increased its full price sales guidance for the second half. It now expects sales to be up 2% on last year, compared with previous guidance of 0.5%.
It also believes it can deliver £46m more cost savings this year than originally planned.
Looking further ahead, the business said it is likely that inflationary pressures on selling prices and operating costs will continue to ease while the longer term outlook is more positive than it has been for many years.
“In reality, we were overly cautious about the prospects for sales in the current year, we underestimated the support nominal wage increases, and a robust employment market, would give to our top line,” the retailer said.
“Sales are better than expected; Online service has significantly improved; costs are lower than expected and, although it is early days, and there have been bumps along the road, all three streams of new business are showing signs of promise.”
Last month Next upgraded its profit guidance for the second time this year after full price sales performed better than expected.
This comes as ‘The New Retail Reality’ report by Barclays revealed that more than 85% of retailers are confident about growth over the next year.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
