Next steps up growth plans with new Home stores
Published: 25 March, 2010
Next is on the acquisition trail again with a requirement for a dozen new Home stores in the current financial year.
Next unveiled an improved set of results with pre-tax profit up 18 per cent to £505m on turnover of £3.406bn in the 12 months to January 2010. And after a long period of decline like-for-like sales turned positive again with 0.5 per cent growth over the year.
And chief executive Simon Wolfson identified the Next Home format as one of the biggest growth areas. “Next Home continues to be the biggest opportunity for us to gain market share and we have made good progress in developing a stand alone offer,” he said
In the year to January 2010 the number of Home stores doubled from 9 to 18, and this year the plan is to open another 12 with a combined floorspace of 150,000 sq ft. “Next Home now has critical mass as a destination for home products,” said Wolfson.
Overall Next increased trading space by 257,000 sq ft in the year, increasing the portfolio to 517 stores. And this year the retailer expects to open a total of 340,000 sq ft of trading space including the new Home stores.
In parallel with the acquisition programme Next is stepping up the rate of refurbishment of its existing stores. “We continue to invest in improving our stores,” explained Wolfson. “During the year we spent £26m refitting and £7m extending our stores, this year we intend to spend a further £18m on cosmetic refits, £6m on new sports and shoe departments and £17m on extensions.”
