Overall Next has benefited from weak comparatives as anticipated plus some late period weather effects which have combined to allow full-year PBT guidance to be raised by 2%. The numbers highlight the structural issues facing both Next and UK Retail in total. While the online Full Price sales growth of 18.1% was much better than we expected (+12%) Retail (the shops) were down 4.8% against a very weak comparative of -8.1% despite the weather boost.
