Next (LSE:NXT) reported group pre-tax profit of £569m for the six months to July, up 10.5% on the £515m posted a year earlier, as total group sales rose 9.0% to £3,540m.
The high street and online retailer said full price sales climbed 7.7%, ahead of the guidance it gave in March, with international online sales up 23.9% and UK online sales up 7.4%, while retail store sales fell 1.7%.
The group's pre-tax net margin rose 0.3 percentage points to 16.1%, with post-tax earnings per share up 12.2% to 370.4p.
"The first half was much better than we originally anticipated, both in the UK and overseas," Next said, noting that growth did not come at the expense of profitability.
The company raised full-year profit guidance by £12m to £1,255m, up 8.4% on last year, citing a small upgrade to sales expectations and additional cost savings, mainly in warehousing. Within that, Next lifted its international online sales guidance for the year by £40m to 20.5% growth, while trimming UK sales growth expectations from 2.8% to 2.0%, citing rising inflation, higher mortgage costs and a weak employment market.
The board declared an interim dividend of 98p per share, payable on 4 January, with shares trading ex-dividend from 3 December.
Next said full-year post-tax earnings per share is now expected to reach 820.8p, up 10.3% on the prior year.
News Intelligence what this means for the company
Next raised full-year profit guidance by £12m to £1,255m after first-half pre-tax profit jumped 10.5% to £569m, driven by UK and international sales beating expectations. The upgrade rests on both a sales beat (full-price sales up 7.7%, ahead of March guidance) and cost savings in warehousing, though management tempered UK growth expectations citing inflation and weak employment—a signal that the outperformance is not uniform across geographies.
The raise to £1,255m (8.4% growth year-on-year) extends Next's pattern of beating its own forecasts, though the company's simultaneous downgrade of UK sales growth from 2.8% to 2.0% suggests the consumer environment is tightening. International online momentum (23.9% growth in H1, guidance lifted to 20.5% for the year) is now the primary growth engine, offsetting domestic headwinds.
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