Next has published a trading update for the 13 weeks to 26th July, in which it says full-price sales were up +10.5% YoY, +£49m ahead of the retailer's guidance for the period (+6.5%).
Next says sales overperformed in both the UK and overseas: "In the UK, we believe that the overperformance was largely due to better than expected weather and trading disruption at a major competitor," it says, in all likelihood alluding to significant cyberattack disruption at M&S.
"International sales grew faster than expected, mainly because our digital marketing proved more effective than anticipated, enabling us to increase profitable marketing expenditure."
Consequently, the retailer is increasing its guidance for full-price sales in H2 from +3.5% to +4.5%, adding a further £27m of full-price sales to its forecast. The increase in sales in Q2, along with that improved sales guidance for H2, means Next is are increasing its full-year guidance for PBT by £25m to £1105m.
However, it clarifies that it is maintaining its H2 guidance for UK sales to be up +1.9% (versus +7.6% in the first half) – in part due to the effects of April's National Insurance changes continuing to filter through into the economy, which it believes will "increasingly dampen consumer spending as the year progresses".
