Next is the UK’s largest clothing retailer
and it blames its first profit drop in 8 years to a loss of focus.
Like many clothing retailers, Next
faces strong competition from the likes of Zara and H&M particularly
through their ability for incredibly fast design turnaround. Their time from
original design to stock in stores is measured in weeks. Next made great efforts to bridge that gap
but now realise it was at the expense of their core clothing products that had
been the feature of many of their ranges.
Next said they were “extremely
cautious” about the outlook for the year ahead, identifying three key threats: shoppers spending less on clothes and more on eating out and holidays; price rises as a result of
the drop in sterling; and weaker growth in consumers’ incomes.