Next has upped its profit guidance for the year on the back of performance “materially better” than previously issued forecasts, although it does not expect trading at current levels to continue.
Profit for the year is now expected to be £835mln, a £40mln increase, while the FTSE 100 retailer expects to increase revenue by £137mln to £4.67bn.
According to a statement, trading was boosted in the seven weeks to 19 June due to warmer weather and an increase in salaries, which meant households had greater spending power.
Full price sales in the first six weeks were up 9.3% versus last year, compared to guidance of a 0.5% decline, beating full price sale estimates by £93mln.
However, Next said it does not anticipate current performance to continue at the same level, with inflation diminishing the impact of increases in salary, although it moderately raised guidance for the rest of the year.
As opposed to a 1.1% decline in sales, it now expects a 0.5% increase for the rest of the financial year.
In May, the retailer held guidance after sales fell in the 13 weeks to 29 April by 0.7%, albeit this was better than the guidance of 2%.