NEXT FINANCE HELPS STORES
Fashion firm Next’s finance arm is working to offset a sharp fall in high-street sales.
Business through Next Pay lending jumped nearly 12% in the past three months. Laith Khalaf, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Selling on credit at rates above 20% is obviously lucrative, but it does mean Next is doubly exposed to a consumer downturn, which would hit its loan book as well as product sales.”
It came as Next’s quarterly shop sales tumbled 8%, thought to be due to the warm autumn. Next stuck to its recently upgraded full-year profit forecast, and announced online sales rose 12.7%, but its share price took a battering yesterday.
A trading statement will be issued on January 3 as it continues a tradition of kicking off the festive reporting season, giving a first clue about how the sector has done.