By James Davey<\/p>\n
LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) – British clothing retailer Next said on Wednesday it would mitigate cost increases linked to the Iran war with \u200cmodest price rises in some overseas markets and savings elsewhere, as it \u200cposted better-than-expected first-quarter sales.<\/p>\n
European fashion retailers, including H&M, have warned that a prolonged Middle East conflict will \u200bpush up prices and dent consumer demand.<\/p>\n
Next said it would offset an estimated 27 million pounds ($37 million) of extra costs in its international business – mainly higher air freight and local distribution expenses – with price increases of up to 8% in markets outside Europe from \u200cMay.<\/p>\n
NO NEED FOR PRICE INCREASES \u2060IN EUROPE<\/p>\n
In Europe, currency gains have absorbed cost pressures, meaning no price rises are needed, the retailer said.<\/p>\n
An estimated 20 million pounds \u2060in additional war-related costs in the UK will be offset by savings elsewhere and margin gains from better-than-expected factory gate prices.<\/p>\n
Next said it does not expect to increase UK prices \u200bbeyond the \u200b0.6% it forecast at the start of \u200bthe year.<\/p>\n
Its pricing guidance assumes that \u200cfuel costs remain at or around current levels and that disruption in factories and global transport networks neither worsens or improves.<\/p>\n
Full-price sales in the first quarter to May 2 rose 6.2%, beating guidance for a 4% increase, which Next attributed to exceptionally strong growth in the first five weeks of the period, before the Iran war \u200cbegan.<\/p>\n
First quarter UK sales rose 4.4%, while international \u200bsales rose 12.8%. Sales in the Middle East make \u200bup about 6% of annual \u200bturnover.<\/p>\n
Next edged up its guidance for 2026\/27 profit before tax to \u200c1.218 billion pounds, from 1.210 billion pounds \u200bpreviously and compared with \u200b1.158 billion pounds in 2025\/26.<\/p>\n
It forecast full\u2011price sales growth of 5.0% for the full year.<\/p>\n
Next shares were up 0.5% in early trading.<\/p>\n
“While the market is \u200bfamiliar with profit upgrades from \u200cNext, this one stands out given ongoing sales and cost pressures stemming \u200bfrom the Middle East conflict,” PanmureLiberum analysts said.<\/p>\n
($1 = 0.7359 pounds)<\/p>\n
(Reporting by James \u200bDavey. Editing by Sarah Young and Mark Potter)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By James Davey LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) – British clothing retailer Next said on Wednesday it would mitigate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1449,13053,13055,13052,13054,5,6],"class_list":["post-29990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-iran-war","tag-next","tag-overseas-markets","tag-price-increases","tag-price-sales","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116527693890729026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}