Next high street store profits drop by a quarter

Sales and profits have slipped at Enderby-based retail giant Next as the company faced its “most challenging year” in 2017.

Group sales slipped by 0.5% to £4.5bn, while profits were down by 8.1% to £726.1m over the year.

The results were boosted by the strong performance of Next’s online channel, which saw profits rise by 7.4%. However, profits across its high street stores dropped by 24%.

Michael Rooney, chairman, said: “In many ways 2017 was the most challenging year we have faced for twenty-five years. A difficult clothing market coincided with self-inflicted product ranging errors and omissions. At the same time, the business has had to manage the costs, systems requirements and opportunities of an accelerating structural shift in spending from retail stores to online. In the end our profits were in line with the forecast we issued in January 2017 and the company goes into the coming year in good financial health.

“Whilst it has been an uncomfortable year it has also prompted us to take a fresh look at almost everything we do: from the structure of our store portfolio, the in-store experience and the generation of alternative retail revenue streams, the management of our cost base, our sourcing and buying methods, stock management and, most importantly, our online systems, marketing and fulfilment platform. As a result of these endeavours, many challenges and opportunities have emerged.”