British Clothing Retailer Next Recorded A 3.5% Decline In Its Three Quarter Full Price Sales.

Britain clothing Retailer Next PLC in the three quarter, sales backwards and stock prices rose instead of their biggest competitor Marks and Spencer Group PLC. Marks & Spencer Next Tuesday's first quarter results are warm-up.

Next PLC has recorded a 3.5% decline in the three quarter of October 30th, reversing the positive growth of 0.3% in the two quarter, but it fell within the 1.5%-4.5% range expected by analysts. The group now expects full price sales in fiscal year 2017 in January 2017 to fall 1.75% to 1.25% over the 2016 fiscal year, when the expected range was down 2.5% to 2.5%, and the median sales growth rate fell slightly to -0.25%, which is the fourth decline in the group's current financial year. Nevertheless, the group maintained its median annual profit of 805 million pounds, and pointed out that it benefited from the improvement of warehouse efficiency and further cost reduction of 6 million pounds, with a profit of 821 million in fiscal 2016.

The group, which is considered to be the most successful clothing retailer in the past ten years, has revealed that due to the weakness of the British consumer desire, the late July's big push needs to increase the discount rate to clear the goods, resulting in the three quarter's first month - August full price sales slump, a 7% decline. However, the growth of 1.3% in October, coupled with the maintenance of the annual profit target, Next PLC (NXT.L) shares rose by 4.6% to 5040 pence in the intraday market on Wednesday, 2.

Simon Wolfson Wolfson, chief executive of Next PLC, which supports the UK's departure from Europe, warned that the macroeconomic background is not good enough. Next year, the group may also face the challenge of a difficult consumption environment. He pointed out that clothing demand began to decline since October 2015. In March this year, he said that 2016 would be the most difficult year since 2008's global financial crisis. According to Kantar Worldpanel, a market research firm, the UK apparel market has experienced the biggest setback since 2009, and sales fell by nearly 700 million compared with the previous year.

Simon Wolfson said that the sharp depreciation of the British pound after the referendum in Europe could lead to a 5% rise in costumes in 2017, and a rise in prices and a reduction in actual consumer income would make it difficult to improve the consumption climate in the UK. Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Association, expects retailers to start raising prices in the first quarter of 2017 after a brutal holiday season.

In the three quarter, sales of about 520 entities in Next PLC declined 5.9% in the UK and Ireland compared with the same period last year, while Next Directory, including e-commerce and directory business, failed to grow. Analysts were most dissatisfied with the performance of the business.

Simon Wolfson hope that the weather will be normal in the coming year to help stabilize the group's sales. Analysts believe that the group is too "secure" for its current positioning and fails to keep up with the needs of younger customers. If this continues, it may become the next M&S Marsha.