W.with the end of the lockdown in sight, and new late opening plans announced for shops in England, it is hoped that clearer days lie ahead for Britain’s main street. So investors will rely on every word said by next chief executive Simon Wolfson when he presents the company’s figures on Thursday.
It may be April Fools’ Day but Lord Wolfson is regarded as the wise head of all sales and economic issues – a view only strengthened by his right-wing ruling on Next in a time of crisis. has eliminated weaker businesses such as Debenhams and Arcadia, the owner of Topshop.
At this time last year, with the new arrival of coronavirus off the coast of Britain, the next annual production decision came at an impressive time, with Wolfson warning that retailers were “facing an unseen crisis. ever in living memory ”.
He feared his company’s pre-tax profits would fall to less than £ 100m, a fraction of the nearly £ 600m they had banked the previous year. Eventually his worst prophecies did not come true. Guidance issued just after Christmas said investors expected better-than-expected profits of £ 342m.
Sales could be better maintained than Wolfson expected due to demand from locked-in Britons for home furniture, lounge and children’s clothing. Unlike competitor Primark, which does not sell online, Next was well prepared to tilt into the web, after years of investing in its home shopping arm, a hangover from its days as an established business air catalog.
It will be interesting to see how consumption has been on the rise in this winter ‘s locking population – and whether or not he, like L’Oréal, thinks the disease will spread to other “roasted twenties”.
Wolfson seems to have put his extra locking thinking time to good use and made some interesting moves. The next thing happened at an auction of the Topshop brand, which went to Asos online competitor as part of a £ 330m deal, but which has captured a 25% stake in Reiss clothing brand for £ 33m.
The agreement sees Reiss switch to a technology service similar to Ocado, Total Platform, which handles web logistics for other brands. This is seen as a growth channel for the company in the future. Reiss ’contract also brings Christos Angelides, a distinguished veteran who has been running Reiss since 2017, back to the fold.
Independent sales analyst Richard Hyman says the dominance of everything in a retail market is so tough. “Wolfson has something very unusual: he’s a physical man with enterprising instincts. Is Next a better seller than it was 10 years ago? No, but it has marked its competitive edges. ”
Next’s resilience to Covid-19 heads has helped steer the share price back to the 2015 high of £ 80.15. The first pandemic saw shares fall to a low of £ 36.62 but closed last week back at £ 78.90.
This year Wolfson, the longest-serving FTSE 100 leader, took his first non-professional career at Deliveroo. With asset managers shining over the food delivery company ‘s move over concerns about how to deal with employees, it will be interesting to see if the choice is regretted.
But what about the details of running a shop, when that is allowed again? Wolfson is one of the few people who loves a corporate retail outlet at the right price – and with rents falling these days, it’s growing. In a recent interview he suggested that the answer was not a tax on online sales, but that business standards should be broken on shops and increased online warehousing to help correct of the ship.
The heavy work seen in the retail industry over the past year – with John Lewis announcing the closure of more stores – means that big questions are being asked about what is happening. the fate of a business that is the largest employer in the private sector, and the way of the economy out of the downfall of the Covid monster. Wolfson is seen as someone who could get at least some of the answers.