Next hits £1bn profit for first time as it raises profit forecast

Next has posted a record-breaking annual profit of over £1bn for the first time in the company’s history, marking a 10.1% rise in profits year-on-year.

As a result, it has raised its sales and profit forecast for 2025, with full-year sales expected to increase by 4.3%.

For the year ending January 2025, the fashion and home retail giant reported a pre-tax profit of £1.01bn, up from £916m the previous year, driven by strong sales performance, particularly in its online operations.

Total sales were reported to have grown by 4.3%, while like-for-like sales saw a slight decline of 1.2%, primarily driven by the slowdown in the UK market due to challenging economic conditions.

Next’s online business played a key role in the  positive results, with online UK sales rising by 4.6%, and profit for the online division increasing by 8%.

The company’s LABEL platform, which sells non-Next brands, showed strong growth, with third-party brand sales increasing by nearly 10%.

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Despite the profit growth, Next cautioned that “the UK economy is expected to remain challenging in the near term, with rising employer taxes following the October Budget expected to reduce consumer spending and impact the broader economy.”

The retailer forecasts a reduction in like-for-like sales in the coming year, with an expected decline of 2%, though new store openings are expected to partially offset this, adding around 1.7% to sales.

“For the year ahead, we are budgeting for retail full price sales, on a like-for-like basis, to be down -2.0%. The addition of new space is expected to add +1.7% to Retail sales, meaning that we expect Retail full price sales to be down -0.3% versus last year,” the company said in its statement.”

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