Editorial & Advertiser disclosure

Global Banking and Finance Review is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website.

Finance

UK's Next lifts profit outlook again after quarterly sales beat expectations

Published by Global Banking and Finance Review

Posted on October 29, 2025

Featured image for article about Finance

By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) -British fashion retailer Next notched up its full-year profit guidance for the fourth time in eight months as it reported a stronger-than-expected 10.5% rise in full-price sales for its third quarter to October 25.

Shares in the FTSE 100 company were up 5% on Wednesday, extending gains this year to 48%, after it said sales exceeded expectations both in the UK and overseas.

Next, run by CEO Simon Wolfson, has over 800 stores in the UK and Ireland, including Reiss, Joules and FatFace stores, plus an online presence in more than 70 countries selling the Next brand and more than 700 others. With the UK accounting for around 80% of its sales, it is often considered a gauge of how British consumers are faring.

The group said it now expected to report a pretax profit of 1.135 billion pounds ($1.52 billion) for the year to January 2026, up from previous guidance of 1.105 billion pounds and the 1.011 billion pounds the retailer made in 2024/25 when it breached the 1 billion pounds mark for the first time.

Next said in September it expected the UK economy to weaken and its sales growth to slow to 4.5% in its second half from the 10.5% it reported for its second quarter, when it benefited from favourable weather and a cyberattack at rival Marks & Spencer.

Third-quarter UK sales increased 5.4%, with Next citing the stronger-than-expected positive effect of improved stock levels compared with last year when disruption in Bangladesh and constraints in global freight capacity delayed deliveries.

Overseas sales jumped 38.8%, partly reflecting Next spending more on digital marketing than previously anticipated.

The group also increased its forecast for full-price sales in the fourth quarter to 7.0%.

"Next should benefit from further real wage growth in the UK albeit it will remain somewhat sensitive to the employment outlook and cost of borrowing for the consumer," analysts at RBC Europe said.

($1 = 0.7451 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle, Sarah Young and Tomasz Janowski)