Next PLC on Thursday left annual profit guidance unchanged after reporting a decent start to its financial year, helped by more in-store shopping.

In the first quarter ended April 30, the retailer’s full price sales climbed 21% year-on-year.

In the UK & Ireland region alone, full price in-store sales climbed almost three-fold.

‘Last year, most of our retail stores were shut for the majority of the first quarter, which is why retail growth is so strong,’ Next explained.

Retail store sales have still not reached pre-pandemic levels, however, being down 8% compared to three years ago. Online sales, which rose significantly due to the pandemic, fell 24% annually, but were up 23% from pre-virus levels.

Online overseas sales were down 12%, after closing its websites in Ukraine and Russia in March. Excluding business in the two countries, online overseas sales are down by 7%, Next added. Compared to three years ago, quarterly online overseas sales were up 47%, and 60% excluding Ukraine and Russia.

The firm confirmed its financial year guidance it posted in March, repeating a pretax profit range of £795 million to £895 million.

It still expects full price sales to rise 5.0% yearly.

The retailer changed its earnings per share to central guidance of an EPS of 557.3p, which would be a 5.0% growth over a year ago. In March, it forecast earnings per share of 556.6p.

Next will publish its sales update for the half-year ended July 30 on August 4.

Next shares were 0.8% higher at 6,132.24 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

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