The UK high street has seen another blow to its already underperforming retail sector with the announcement from Next stating a bigger-than-expected downturn in sales. Figures at Next have dropped by 6.3 per cent over the past 15 weeks, a sharp acceleration on the 3.5 per cent downturn in the first seven weeks of its new financial year.
Stripping out the impact of new store openings on existing outlets, the fall was 3.2 per cent, up from 0.9 per cent. The contribution from new stores saw total sales ahead by 6 per cent while the Directory mail order operation’s sales rose 8.1 per cent.
Next has been one of the High Street’s brightest stars in recent years but has been unable to withstand the sudden spending squeeze. The shared tumbled 27p to 1478p on news of the worse-than expected performance. Trading was active ahead of the figures, with speculators betting the shares would lose ground. As much as £300 million of stock is though to have been sold short in recent weeks, as traders gambled they would be able to buy the shares back cheaper after the trading update
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