The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
LONDON, United Kingdom — Next Plc, the UK's second largest clothing retailer, said sales accelerated on new store openings as it sharpened its sales and profit forecast for the year.
Sales under the Next brand, incorporating both shops and the Directory home-shopping service, increased 0.3 percent in the second quarter, the Leicester, England-based company said in a statement Wednesday. That is an improvement on a decline in the first quarter and compares with the 0.6 percent increase estimated by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Next also narrowed its forecast for full-year sales growth to fall within a range of negative 2.5 percent to a gain of 2.5 percent. The company had previously seen a range of negative 3.5 percent and 3.5 percent growth. It also raised the low end of its profit forecast to be at least £775 million ($1.03 billion), up from £748 million before.
“We expect the consumer environment to remain tough for the rest of the year,” chief executive officer Simon Wolfson said in the statement. “Quarter three will be particularly challenging as it was our best quarter last year.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Next’s status among investors as the UK’s most reliable retailer — earned after seven consecutive years of profit growth — has come under threat in 2016. The company has cut its sales forecast twice amid waning consumer confidence, intense competition and unseasonal weather conditions.
The retailer said it hasn’t yet seen any “appreciable effect” on consumer behaviour in the wake of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.
By Sam Chambers; editor: Matthew Boyle.
In 2020, like many companies, the $50 billion yoga apparel brand created a new department to improve internal diversity and inclusion, and to create a more equitable playing field for minorities. In interviews with BoF, 14 current and former employees said things only got worse.
For fashion’s private market investors, deal-making may provide less-than-ideal returns and raise questions about the long-term value creation opportunities across parts of the fashion industry, reports The State of Fashion 2024.
A blockbuster public listing should clear the way for other brands to try their luck. That, plus LVMH results and what else to watch for in the coming week.
L Catterton, the private-equity firm with close ties to LVMH and Bernard Arnault that’s preparing to take Birkenstock public, has become an investment giant in the consumer-goods space, with stakes in companies selling everything from fashion to pet food to tacos.