CEO Simon Wolfson’s ‘Big Picture’ thoughts on the business and the growth avenues ahead, as well as his read on the UK consumer, will be in focus when Next (NXT) delivers first-half results on 18 September.
Shareholders will be hoping the fashion-to-homewares seller has maintained its positive trading momentum with the all-important golden quarter in sight. Only the bravest souls would be against another full-year 2026 profit upgrade from the high street bellwether, although Next faces trickier times ahead if Deutsche Bank’s prediction of an incoming consumer spending slowdown stoked by unemployment fears proves correct.
On 31 July, the best-in-class retailer delivered its third upgrade to full-year 2026 profit guidance in 2025-to-date after warm weather boosted seasonal ranges in the second quarter and the Next benefited from cyber-attack-driven disruption at competitor Marks & Spencer (MKS).
Next generated a 10.5% rise in full-price sales in the 13 weeks to 26 July, £49 million ahead of the previously-guided 6.5%, and bumped up its year-to-January 2026 pre-tax profit outlook by £25 million to a tad above £1.1 billion. However, the Leicester-based company, which recently snapped up the Seraphine maternity brand out of administration, remained cautious for the second half due to tough comparatives and with the effects of April’s national insurance changes likely to dampen consumer spending.
UK sales could come under pressure as consumer confidence weakens and arch-rival Marks & Spencer gets back on the front foot, having taken almost five months to recover from the hack-attack, although analysts expect Next’s excellent international performance to persist into the second half and beyond.
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