Overview
- Full‑price sales rose 10.6% in the nine weeks to 27 December, with the UK up 5.9% and international up 38.3%.
- Pre‑tax profit guidance for the year to January increased to £1.15bn, the fifth upgrade this financial year, after roughly £51m of extra profit from the festive outperformance.
- Management now forecasts about 4.5% full‑price sales growth and roughly £1.2bn pre‑tax profit in 2026/27, citing pressure from a weakening UK jobs market and tougher comparatives.
- International online strength was helped by operational changes and the Zalando logistics transition that improved stock availability across Europe; UK online grew 9.1% versus 1.4% in stores.
- Next completed approximately £131m of share buybacks and expects around £768m available for shareholder distributions, as the shares rose about 2–3% after the update.