 plunged over 6 percent on Thursday, after sinking sales caused the company to adjust their full year guidance downwards.){kind=link}
Shares in clothing retailer Next (LON:NXT) plunged over 6 percent on Thursday, after sinking sales caused the company to adjust their full year guidance downwards.
The company updated on a disappointing quarter, with Next retail sales fell by 8.1 percent, slightly offset by a 3.3 percent rise in sales from the Next directory. Overall, full sales fell by 3 percent in the 13 weeks to Saturday 29th April.
The retailer also cut its full year profit forecast, and now expects full-year profits of between £680 million and £740 million compared with an earlier forecast of £680 million to £780 million.
In a statement, the company said: “At our full year results announcement in March we said that we expected full price sales in the first quarter to be towards the lower end of our full year guidance range of +2.5 percent to -3.5 percent”.
Due to the position of Easter this year, the combined performance of March and April was better than February, which Next believes was “assisted by the later, warmer Easter.”
The company said that the consumer environment remained “challenging” throughout the quarter, “particularly in the clothing and homeware markets, and real wage growth is now close to zero.”
Shares in Next are currently trading down 6.46 percent at 4,128.00 (0904GMT).