Next tipped to reveal £30m rise in profits

HIGH street stalwart Next is on track for a £30 million profit boost despite expecting negative annual sales.

The group, which updates the City on its recent performance on Wednesday, has already said it is budgeting for like-for-like sales ranging from 2.5 per cent down to 0.5 per cent up in the first six months of the current financial year. Despite this, the retailer still hopes to be able to grow profits by some 30m.

Analysts believe this resilience to the consumer environment gives the fashion and homewares business a certain amount of protection from the vagaries of the economic and political winds blowing through the UK.

Next's confidence comes despite warnings at the group's annual results in March that 2010 would be hard to predict ahead of the general election and the potential for personal tax rises.

Analysts at Numis Securities said: "Given Next's track record of meeting/beating guidance, we would expect them to deliver on this, driving an increase in our (full-year] pre-tax profits forecast to 537m."

The retailer posted pre-tax profits of 505m for the 12 months to January, up on the 428.8m of a year earlier.

Next, whose chief executive Simon Wolfson is believed to have plans to become a working peer in any new Conservative government, enjoyed a resurgent performance in 2009 after it refocused the business to aggressively back new products and trends.

It made a series of profit upgrades throughout the year as sales continued to surprise on the upside.