Fashion retailer Next has announced that they have seen a rise in sales over the past few weeks due to warmer weather and the increase in pay rises.
The fashion retailer saw a spike in shares after lifting their sales and profit guidance for 2023.
Next said trading did “materially better” than what their shareholders were told last month and over the past seven weeks full price sales went up 9.3%.
Next surpassed the full price sales by £93 million and have upgraded their guidance by £137 million and increased their profit expectations from £40 million to £835 million for the full year.
The retailer warned that the “ongoing inflation” will start to erode away the positive effects of the “annual pay increases.”
Next said in a statement, “The onset of warmer weather has made a significant difference to our performance, particularly coming after a wet and cold April.”
The retailer added, “If recent pay rises and the sudden change in weather have indeed contributed to the current over-performance, then it is reasonable to expect that the effect will diminish over time because ongoing inflation will slowly erode the positive effect of annual pay increases.
“This is why we are not anticipating the current performance to continue at the same level going forward, albeit we have moderately improved our guidance for the rest of the year.”
