• Next full price sales up 4.8%
• The retailer raised its pre-tax profit guidance to £860m
• Next shares are up 5.98%

Next announced its trading statement on Thursday, which saw sales over the Christmas period perform better than anticipated, sending its shares 5.98% higher.

In the nine weeks to 30 December, full price sales increased 4.8% year-on-year, which was £66 million better than its previous guidance of -2% for the period.

Furthermore, both online and retail sales exceeded expectations, with retail full price sales up 12.5% and online full price sales up 0.2%. The multinational retailer acknowledged that they could have underestimated the negative impact Covid had on their retail sales the previous year.

Next provided the above chart, setting out Q4 performance weekly versus the prior year. The group saw a dramatic boost to its sales over December, with the firm believing that the “strength of demand for cold weather products in December was partly a result to pent up demand.”

The firm raised its pre-tax profit guidance for the full year by £20 million to £860 million as a result of better than anticipated full price sales in the period. This prediction is predicated on full price sales in January being broadly flat from the previous year.

However, Next forecasted lower profits for the 2023-24 financial year, citing potential uncertainty over the cost inflation. Therefore, full price sales are expected to be down 1.5%.