Home and fashion retailer Next on Wednesday said warm weather over the Easter holiday drove a 4.5 per cent rise in full-price first-quarter sales, beating its own forecasts of a 3.2 per cent rise.

Next, which trades from more than 500 stores in Britain and Ireland, about 200 stores in 40 other countries and its Directory online business, said full-price sales at stores fell 3.6 per cent in the 13 weeks to April 27th, while online sales rose 11.8 per cent.

The company said the first-quarter outperformance, which amounted to about £10 million (€11.62 million) of sales, was a relatively small number in the context of annual sales and it was not sufficient to change its view of the full year.

The group maintained the sales and profit guidance for the full 2019-20 year, with full-price sales growth seen up 1.7 per cent and a 1.1 per cent fall in pretax profit to £715 million pounds. – Reuters