| | The profit for the 52 week period ended 27 January 2018 after taxation, amounted to £434.5m (52 week period ended 28 January 2017: £504.9m). Total retail sales were reduced by -7.9% on last year, full price sales were down -7.0%. Net new space contributed +2.0% to total sales growth. Retail profit of £268.7m was - 20.7% (on restated basis) lower than last year, representing a -2.0% decrease in net margin.
Stores numbers decreased from last year by 2%. There were 17 stores closures, three were as a result of consolidating two stores into one location. The remaining 14 stores made an average 12% profit (before central overheads). Excluding the one store which was subject to a compulsory purchase, the average profitability of the stores was 9%. We would not necessarily activiely seek to close stores making a 9% margin however we would rarely agree to a new lease at these levels of profit. As a result of the active management of our store portfolio the vast majority of our stores make a healty profit, with 94% of our space delivering a net branch profit of more than 10%. The table below sets out the percentage of our turnover with stores of different levels of profitability as at January 2018.
Equity dividends were paid during the financial period of £500m (52 weeks period ended 28 January 2017:£nil). The directors do not propose payment of a final dividend.
Total Sales excluding VAT - January 2018
NEXT Retail - 2,123.0
NEXT ONLINE - 1,887.4
NEXT International Retail - 58.1
Total NEXT Brand sales excluding VAT - 4,068.5 |