Next set to compound retailing sector gloom

Middle market fashion retailer Next is expected to post another fall in quarterly sales this week due to a mixture of gathering economic uncertainty and a cold, rainy June.

Next is due to report its latest sales figures on Wednesday. Picture: Neil Hanna

City analysts expect like-for-like sales at the chain’s high street shops to have fallen up to 8 per cent in the second quarter, which takes in the Brexit vote late in June, when it reports on Wednesday.

The collapse in the value of sterling after the vote is seen as compounding Next’s difficulties by pushing up its input costs.

The FTSE 100 listed company slashed full-year sales estimates at the start of 2016 when chief executive Lord Wolfson said the market was “the toughest we have faced since 2008” – the year of the financial crash.

One analyst commented: “I don’t think the conditions have eased for Next and its high street peers, quite the opposite. I expect Next’s shops to have suffered, mitigated by its online/catalogue arm.”