The high street retailer’s boss and Tory peer has seen off similarly gloomy pronouncements in the past so don’t write off the chain just yet
Lord Wolfson can struggle to sound cheerful at the best of times but, to judge by a 15% fall in the share price, you might think the chief executive of Next had said the sky was about to fall in. In fact, Wolfson merely gave another outing to a metaphor he used in 2011 – trading this year “may well feel like walking up the down escalator, with a great deal of effort required to stand still”.
Back then, the escalator soon started going up again and Next went on to beat its profits forecast comfortably. Such a happy outcome is possible again. Next, on Thursday, reported full-year pre-tax profits of £821m and for the current year, even with the dodgy conveyor, it predicts £784m-£858m. The top end of the range would be a 4.5% increase, which is hardly catastrophic.
Related: Next warns of toughest trading since financial crisis and cuts sales forecast
Related: Premier Foods under fire over handling of takeover bid
Related: Two-thirds of banks fear Brexit, according to UK industry poll
Continue reading...from Business blog | The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2016/mar/24/next-faces-a-torrid-few-weeks-but-wolfson-has-been-here-before
No comments:
Post a Comment