Category
- Agriculture
- Automobiles and Machinery
- Bank, non banking financing, investment
- Blasting
- Construction
- Consumables
- Education
- Energy
- Engineer , Architecture and Geodesy
- Finance, Audit,Accounting and Brokerage
- Food
- Foreign Trade
- Geology Exploration
- Health
- Information Technology
- Insurance
- Labor Safety
- Legal and Business consulting
- Lighting
- Mining equipment
- Mining Services
- Other product and service
- Road
- Sewing and textile products
- Transportations
- Travel
Events
Next sees sales fall again in 'difficult' quarter www.bbc.com
Retailer Next has blamed heavy discounting and tough comparisons to its performance last year for a sharp drop in sales in the third quarter.
Sales at its High Street stores fell 5.9% in the three months to the end of October, while sales at its Next Directory online division were flat.
It now expects full-year sales to be between 1.75% lower and 1.25% higher than the previous year.
It said this was "marginally lower" than the guidance it gave in May.
It is the fourth time this year that Next has downgraded its annual sales guidance.
However, it said that cost savings meant its central profit forecast for the full year remained unchanged at £805m.
The chain, which has more than 500 stores, warned in September that the third quarter would be "difficult".
At the time, chief executive Lord Wolfson blamed "economic and cyclical factors working against us" and said the unusually warm September had meant no one was buying winter clothes.
In the year so far, Next said, sale items had outsold full-price items, helping total sales to increase slightly. However, it said the number of items sold at full price was down 1.5%.
Next, once one of the strongest performers on the High Street, has seen its shares fall by more than a third this year.
Official statistics, published last month, showed weak sales of food, footwear and clothing in September, with the amount of goods people bought flat compared with August.
Richard Lim, chief executive of research firm Retail Economics, said the figures from Next confirmed "underlying conditions on the High Street remain desperate for clothing and footwear retailers".
"The beginning of the autumn/winter season was plagued by unseasonably warm weather, which has decimated sales growth across the sector.
"Retailers are facing rising costs resulting from the collapse in sterling, higher wages through the implementation of the National Living Wage and rising rates which will all bear down on profitability. The outlook looks very challenging indeed," he added.
Published Date:2016-11-02
