Final Results

Next PLC 22 March 2007 Date: Embargoed until 07.00am, Thursday 22 March 2007 Contacts: Simon Wolfson, Chief Executive David Keens, Group Finance Director NEXT PLC Tel: 020 7796 4133 (22/03/07) Tel: 08454 567 777 (thereafter) Alistair Mackinnon-Musson Nicola Savage Hudson Sandler Tel: 020 7796 4133 Email: next@hspr.com Photographs available: http://www.next.co.uk/press/ NEXT PLC Results for the Year Ended January 2007 • Group turnover up 5.7% to £3.3 billion • Group profit before interest up 7.8% to £507m • Group profit before tax up 6.5% to £478m • Buyback 7.7% of share capital for £316m • Earnings per share up 14.7% to 146.1p • Total dividend up 11.4% to 49p Chairman's Statement I am pleased to report that NEXT has had another solid year. In a difficult and competitive year both sales and profits have grown to record levels. Earnings per share have risen by 14.7% to 146.1p, enhanced by the beneficial effect of share buybacks over the past two years. In the seven years since January 2000 we have returned £2 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, which is more than the market value of the whole company at that time. In order to deliver our primary financial goal of long term sustainable growth in earnings per share our emphasis in the year ahead will be to improve the performance of our existing operations. In his report, Simon Wolfson lays out some of the steps which are being taken to ensure the vitality of the NEXT Brand. Of these the most important is our constant desire to improve the product we offer our customers. The achievement of this objective and the intention to continue our buyback programme, where appropriate, offers us the best opportunity to deliver superior returns to our shareholders. Derek Netherton, who has served 10 years on the Board, has signalled his intention to step down in 2008 and we have commenced the search for a new non-executive, who will also take over from Derek as Chairman of the Audit Committee in due course. I am confident that our strategy of being a highly focused operation combined with the continued return of cash to shareholders will continue to deliver great product and service to our customers and a healthy return to our shareholders. I would like to thank our staff, suppliers and in particular our management team, who have led us through a challenging period. John Barton Chairman Chief Executive's Review A FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL YEAR The financial objective for NEXT plc is the delivery of long term sustainable growth in earnings per share. EPS have increased by 14.7% in a year that we anticipated would be challenging. Profit before interest increased by 7.8% and these gains were enhanced through the purchase for cancellation of 7.7% of our share capital during the year. Progress in profits has been made despite negative like for like sales growth in NEXT Retail. This has been achieved through rigorous cost control, good stock control in the second half, improving gross margins and continued sales growth in NEXT Directory. Operating profits were at the top end of our expectations and were further enhanced by an unexpected reduction in the pension charge following the year end actuarial valuation. PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT Turnover Profit & excluding VAT Earnings per share 2007 2006 2007 2006 £m £m £m £m Restated NEXT Retail 2,255.0 2,216.8 316.6 329.1 NEXT Directory 774.5 685.0 143.9 96.9 __________ __________ __________ __________ The NEXT Brand 3,029.5 2,901.8 460.5 426.0 +8.1% NEXT Franchise 49.8 39.2 6.0 7.9 NEXT Sourcing 6.4 8.7 31.8 32.9 Ventura 190.9 149.2 20.6 13.6 Other activities 7.2 7.3 (1.1) (3.7) Share option charge - - (8.3) (8.1) Unrealised exchange (loss)/gain - - (2.0) 2.1 __________ __________ __________ __________ Turnover & operating profit 3,283.8 3,106.2 507.5 470.7 +7.8% __________ __________ Interest expense (29.1) (21.6) __________ __________ Profit before tax 478.4 449.1 +6.5% Taxation (146.9) (135.6) __________ __________ Profit after tax 331.5 313.5 +5.7% __________ __________ Basic earnings per share 146.1p 127.4p +14.7% LIKE FOR LIKE SALES Despite a solid profit performance from the NEXT Group, like for like Retail sales were a disappointment and stabilising this measure will be our primary goal in the year ahead. At the beginning of last year we said that like for like sales would be negative as a result of improving competition and a worsening consumer environment. However we recognise that there are things we can do internally to improve the performance of the NEXT Brand. What we have to do is simple, but not easy - recapture some of the magic and excitement that has gone hand in hand with the success of NEXT over many years. REVITALISING THE NEXT BRAND Over the last six months we have taken steps to revitalise the NEXT Brand and these changes will become more apparent as the year progresses. In order of importance, the programme we have put in place focuses on: • Improving our product offer • Improving the marketing of the brand • Further development of our shop fit and store environment The following paragraphs talk about some of the things we are doing, the language mirrors the way in which we have communicated these objectives within the business. The starting point is setting out what the NEXT Brand stands for: Exciting, beautifully designed, excellent quality clothing and homeware; presented in collections that reflect the aspirations and means of our customers. Improving the Product Offer There are three main themes that must influence the way we put our ranges together going forward: • More focus on newness NEXT ranges will contain more newness and be less dependent on repeating last year's best sellers. This is only partly about introducing new suppliers and improving lead times, it is mainly about having the courage and intuition to back new trends with conviction - before having firm evidence that they will succeed! Essentially this is a cultural change rather than a change in procedure. • More focus on quality As a result of considerable success at the lower end of our price architecture we had become less focused on mid and higher price points. Going forward we will maintain our price starter business, but increase the emphasis on beautifully designed, great quality product at mid to upper price points. This is the product that customers come to NEXT for. • Product we love This is the hardest idea to put into words, but essentially we need to be personally more connected with our clothing. As a retail business becomes more successful there is a temptation to begin to regard the product as a commodity - we need to like, wear and be excited by our product. When new items arrive in our shops, the first thing the staff should think is not 'that will sell', but 'I want that!'. Marketing We have always believed that the product makes the brand and not vice versa, however it is not enough that we only improve our product ranges. Every contact we have with the customer needs to convey the excitement and quality we aspire to in our clothing and homeware. To this end we will continue to upgrade all the elements of our instore marketing from graphics through to internal displays. We have spent over two million pounds replacing window bust forms with new mannequins. In larger stores we are also rolling out internal mannequin displays. For the first time in many years we have undertaken a brand advertising campaign, which will continue at regular intervals throughout the year. Overall we estimate we will spend in the region of £10m in the year ahead (up from £1.5m last year). The aim is that all of our communications will reflect the theme of the campaigns - instore, windows, web page, direct mail and elsewhere. Shop Fit The 13 stores refitted last year continue to perform ahead of our expectations and have improved their sales performance by 5%. In the light of this we have undertaken a more radical review of our shop fit. The first concept change in May last year was essentially decorative; the next phase will tackle every element of a store from decoration through to centre floor fixtures, flooring and circulation space. We will be introducing elements of the new shop fit throughout the spring and summer but the first full refit in the new concept will be Bluewater Park, Kent which will re-launch at the end of May. The first new store to be opened in the new concept will be Sheffield Meadowhall in late August. The following table summarises our shop fit programme for the year ahead. It shows both the capital we expect to spend and the percentage of space we expect to reflect the new concept in some way by the end of the year. Square Feet 000's Refits New Stores Total Spring Summer 297 174 471 Autumn Winter 356 268 624 Full Year 653 442 1,095 Percentage of portfolio 13% 8% 21% Capital expenditure £m Refits New Stores Total Spring Summer 17 24 41 Autumn Winter 17 39 56 Full Year 34 63 97 NEXT RETAIL Retail Sales Sales in NEXT Retail were 1.7% ahead of last year. Like for like sales in stores that traded continuously and were not affected by the opening of new space were -7.2% down on last year. Weak full price like for like sales of -6.6% were further reduced as a result of smaller end of season Sales than last year. New Space In the year we added a net 514,000 square feet and increased the number of stores by 41 to a total of 480. 2007 2006 Annual change Store numbers 480 439 41 Square feet 000's 4,823 4,309 514 We estimate that payback of the net capital invested in new space will be 17 months, which will be well within our investment criteria of 24 months. When appraising a new store we account for the loss of sales and profit from nearby stores that we expect to suffer a downturn as a result of the new opening. Sales from new space, net of this deflection, are now forecast to be -0.4% down on our appraised target. We currently expect to add a net 350,000 square feet in the year ahead. Retail Profit Profit in NEXT Retail decreased by -3.8% compared with last year. Net operating margin was down from 14.8% to 14.0%. The erosion in margin is detailed in the table below, the figures show the change as a percentage of sales for each of our major heads of cost. Net operating margin last year 14.8% Increase in achieved gross margin +1.5% Increase in branch occupancy costs - 1.9% Increase in branch wage costs - 0.4% Change in central overheads 0.0% _________ Net operating margin this year 14.0% _________ The improved gross margin was a result of better sourcing, and was achieved without raising prices or reducing quality. The bought in gross margin was up 1.6% which reduced to an achieved margin improvement of 1.5% after slightly higher markdown costs. Branch occupancy costs increased as a percentage of sales due to the impact of lower like for like sales on fixed expenses such as rent, rates, depreciation and energy. Wages increased marginally as a percentage of sales mainly as a result of the cost of living pay award at the beginning of the year. NEXT DIRECTORY Directory Sales NEXT Directory performed well with sales 13.1% ahead of last year. Improved stock availability, lower returns rates and increased service charge income meant that sales rose faster than the underlying demand. Demand, which is the total value of all items requested by customers before adjusting for out of stocks or returns, was 4.9% up on last year. The increase in demand was driven by an increase of 6.4% in the average number of active customers and an increase of 13.6% in printed pages. The internet continues to grow in importance and since January this year has taken just over 50% of Directory sales. Outlook for Customer Recruitment We begin the year with 2.2% more customers than last year. We are anticipating that the growth in Directory customer numbers will be slower in the year ahead. There are two reasons for this: • We have increased the credit status requirements to eliminate some of the bad debt we incurred last year. • We anticipate a significant increase in competition for new customers online (in the clothing sector and across all other retail sectors). The effect of this will be to push up the cost of recruitment online. Increasing Sales per Customer As recruitment slows there will be an increased emphasis on increasing sales per customer. There are two key initiatives: • Broadening the product offer This will mainly be in the Home and Electricals category. In order to allow us to increase the number of pages in the main catalogue, for Autumn Winter we will be printing two separate hard back catalogues - one for Fashion and the other for Home. • Improved internet functionality We will improve the search-ability of the site, both from external search engines and within the site using our own search engine. We will also begin to develop active selling software to encourage link sales. Directory Profit NEXT Directory profit was up 48.5% on last year, an exceptional performance, and significantly ahead of the growth in sales. The improvement in net operating margin is detailed in the table below, the figures show the change as a percentage of sales for each of our major heads of cost. 14.1% Net operating margin last year Reduction in achieved gross margin - 0.2% Increase in bad debt - 0.6% Increase in service charge income + 1.5% Reduction in central overheads + 3.8% _________ Net operating margin this year 18.6% _________ The achieved gross margin declined despite an increase in the bought in gross margin of 1.2%. This year we transferred less stock from Directory to Retail for the end of season Sales, which resulted in higher markdowns and the achieved gross margin declining by -0.2%. Although we experienced a significant increase in bad debt, this was more than compensated for by an increase in service charge income. Central overheads reduced very significantly as a percentage of sales. Much of the improvement came as a result of new warehousing techniques made possible by the opening of our new boxed warehouse. Improved collation rates meant that we needed fewer separate deliveries per order. This contributed to significantly lower distribution costs and warehouse picking costs were also down. Increased use of the internet and our call centre in India meant that call centre costs also reduced as a percentage of sales. BRAND COST ALLOCATION We have revised the allocation of costs between the NEXT Directory and NEXT Retail. In order to facilitate comparisons we have presented last year's figures on a consistent basis. There is no change to the total NEXT Brand profit as a consequence. COST CONTROL We anticipate the retail environment will remain challenging and it will be important for NEXT to continue to make cost savings throughout the business. We believe that there is still the opportunity to make improvements to our operating efficiency, albeit not on the scale we achieved last year. We also believe we can make some further progress in improving our bought in gross margins. LIME Lime, the value brand trading in NEXT Clearance stores, is now also in 10 stand alone stores. The performance of Lime in NEXT Clearance is satisfactory and provides a useful way to capitalise on the footfall generated by our clearance products. It also allows us to make up for the inevitable gaps in the clearance ranges. The performance in stand alone stores is not yet strong enough to warrant any significant roll out, although we will open 2 further stores this spring. We will be able to make an initial assessment of Lime as a stand alone concept early in 2008, as by then we will have like for like sales comparisons. NEXT Franchise Sales to our overseas franchise partners grew by 27% during the year. However, our franchise partners' own sales rose by only 14%, the difference being due to over-ordering by one of our partners. This stock was sold on a cost plus royalty basis, so whilst we have recovered the cost of the stock we have not made any profit on it. We now allocate a share of central costs to NEXT Franchise, primarily warehouse and merchandising, which amounted to £2.4m for the year. This will continue going forward. Excluding this re-allocation of costs, comparable profit for NEXT Franchise rose by 6.7%. Our partners opened 33 new stores in the year, making 129 in total. Our largest region remains the Middle East in terms of store numbers and sales. Europe is growing strongly with 13 stores opened in Russia and 5 in Turkey. Stores were also opened in India and Thailand and we anticipate that 25 new stores will be opening during the current year. NEXT Sourcing (NSL) NSL achieved lower sales than expected in the second half and ended the year at £31.8m profit, £1.1m below last year. The major cause was the tight buying and stock levels maintained by NEXT Retail and Directory which led to lower income in NSL. Action has been taken on costs to bring them into line with expected activity levels for 2007. NSL is a profit centre and competes with other agents and factories. It charges commission on the product it sources and bears its own operating costs. It has offices in mainland China, Hong Kong, Romania, Sri Lanka, Turkey and the UK engaged in the design, sourcing, buying, merchandising and quality control of NEXT products. Ventura Ventura continued to build on its excellent first half. Turnover for the year increased by 28% to £191m and, as a result, profits of £20.6m were ahead of our original expectations. Ventura continues to retain and win new clients through its focus on delivering high quality service at excellent value for money. It operates across many sectors including Telecoms, Utilities, Financial Services, Travel, Media and the Public Sector. Ventura now employs 10,000 people and operates a wholly owned call centre in India. We expect Ventura to make further progress in sales and profits in the year ahead. In 2007 Ventura will commence selling warehouse and distribution services, initially using available capacity in the NEXT Retail and Directory network. OTHER ACTIVITIES The Other Activities charge was £1.1m including Central Costs of £7.9m. Other Activities also includes profits from our Property Management Division, Choice (an associated company which operates sixteen discount stores) and Cotton Traders (an associated company which sells its own brand products). During the year the Group paid £32.5m of extra contributions into its pension scheme. This, together with changes in actuarial assumptions, reduced the scheme deficit from £116m to £47m. The charge in Central Costs in respect of the scheme deficit, which is in addition to normal contributions, reduced to £0.8m this year compared with £5.9m last year. BALANCE SHEET AND CASH FLOW Cash flow was very strong and before share buybacks we achieved an inflow of £237m. The net cash outflow after share buybacks was £79m. Net borrowings at the year end were £444m and are financed through a £300m 5.25% 10 year bond, which was issued in June 2003, and a new 5.875% 10 year bond issued last October. The Group also has £450m of medium term bank facilities which are currently unused. Capital expenditure included £89m on stores and £39m on warehousing. We expect this year's expenditure will be in the region of £170m. Year end stock levels at £282m were 13% down on last year, which was partly due to the timing of shipments from our suppliers and was £10m below our preferred level. Debtors of £578m included £424m of Directory customer account balances, which in future are expected to rise more in line with Directory sales. SHARE BUYBACKS During the year we purchased a further 19 million shares for cancellation at an average price of 1661p and a cash cost of £316m. This was 7.7% of the shares in issue at the beginning of the year and was achieved by a combination of market purchases and the use of contingent purchase contracts. We intend to continue with this strategy of buying back shares as and when it is in the interests of shareholders generally. Resolutions to renew these authorities will be put to shareholders at the AGM in May. DIVIDEND The Directors are recommending a final dividend of 33.5p against 30p last year, bringing the total for the year to 49p compared with 44p, an increase of 11.4%. The dividend is again covered almost 3 times by earnings per share of 146.1p. It is not our intention for dividend cover to rise above three times. CURRENT TRADING The combined sales of NEXT Retail and NEXT Directory for the seven week period from 28 January to 17 March 2007 were up 4.4% compared to the same period last year. NEXT Retail sales were up 4.1% in the period. Mainline like for like sales in the 320 stores that were unaffected by new openings were down -0.3%. NEXT Directory sales were up 5.3% in the period. These figures for the seven week period need to be treated with some caution as this year the period includes the week before Mothers' Day and last year it did not. We estimate that as a result both NEXT Retail and Directory sales have been flattered by around 1.5%. OUTLOOK FOR 2007 We believe the consumer environment will remain challenging. Whilst we are still cautious for the year ahead we do expect to make progress in stabilising NEXT Retail like for like sales. We are currently budgeting in the first half for NEXT Retail full price like for likes to be in the range -1% to -4%, a significant improvement on the -7.2% achieved last year. NEXT remains highly cash generative and we will continue with our policy of buying back shares when it is earnings enhancing and in the interests of shareholders generally. Simon Wolfson 22 March 2007 CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT Year Year to January to January 2007 2006 £m £m Revenue 3,283.8 3,106.2 _________ _________ Trading profit 506.1 468.9 Share of results of associates 1.4 1.8 _________ _________ Operating profit 507.5 470.7 Finance income 4.0 1.1 Finance costs (33.1) (22.7) _________ _________ Profit before taxation 478.4 449.1 Taxation (146.9) (135.6) _________ _________ Profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company 331.5 313.5 _________ _________ Basic earnings per share p 146.1 127.4 Diluted earnings per share p 144.3 125.9 Dividend per share p 49.0 44.0 CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF RECOGNISED INCOME AND EXPENSE Year Year to January to January 2007 2006 £m £m Income and expenses recognised directly in equity Exchange differences on translation of foreign operations (1.0) 2.4 (Losses)/gains on cash flow hedges (34.7) 18.5 Hedging adjustment 2.3 - Actuarial gains/(losses) on defined benefit pension schemes 32.5 (34.8) Tax on items recognised directly in equity (0.9) 10.4 _________ _________ (1.8) (3.5) Transfers Transferred to income statement on cash flow hedges 6.2 (1.5) Transferred to carrying amount of hedged items on cash flow hedges 5.8 (8.6) _________ _________ Net income/(expense) recognised directly in equity 10.2 (13.6) Profit for the year 331.5 313.5 _________ _________ Total recognised income and expense for the period 341.7 299.9 _________ _________ Opening balance sheet adjustment for adoption of IAS 32 and IAS 39 - (43.7) _________ _________ CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET January January 2007 2006 £m £m ASSETS AND LIABILITIES Non-current assets Property, plant & equipment 544.4 514.1 Intangible assets 36.2 36.2 Interests in associates 2.2 1.8 Other investments 1.0 1.0 Other financial assets 2.2 1.4 Deferred tax assets 2.6 7.8 588.6 562.3 Current assets Inventories 281.8 323.9 Trade and other receivables 577.7 513.8 Other financial assets 1.2 4.1 Cash and short term deposits 121.7 69.8 _________ 982.4 911.6 _________ Total assets 1,571.0 1,473.9 Current liabilities Bank overdrafts (12.5) (31.4) Unsecured bank loans (0.1) (100.3) Trade and other payables (621.1) (568.8) Other financial liabilities (23.6) (1.8) Current tax liability (81.2) (53.2) _________ (738.5) (755.5) Non-current liabilities Corporate bonds (531.2) (298.1) Net retirement benefit obligation (47.0) (115.6) Provisions (9.5) (10.0) Other financial liabilities (19.2) (4.5) Other liabilities (36.3) (34.0) (643.2) (462.2) Total liabilities (1,381.7) (1,217.7) Net assets 189.3 256.2 EQUITY Share capital 22.7 24.6 Share premium account 0.7 0.7 Capital redemption reserve 7.2 5.3 ESOT reserve (76.9) (89.3) Fair value reserve (19.9) 2.8 Foreign currency translation reserve 2.0 3.0 Other reserves (1,443.7) (1,441.7) Retained earnings 1,697.2 1,750.8 Total equity 189.3 256.2 CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT Year Year to January 2007 to January £m 2006 £m Cash flows from operating activities Operating profit 507.5 470.7 Depreciation 102.3 81.2 Loss/(profit) on disposal of property, plant and equipment 2.9 (0.2) Share option charge 8.3 8.1 Share of undistributed profit of associates (0.4) (0.3) Exchange movement 2.6 (0.5) Decrease/(increase) in inventories 42.1 (22.3) Increase in trade and other receivables (63.7) (76.3) Increase in trade and other payables 49.5 62.8 Pension contributions less income statement charge (36.1) (11.8) ________ ________ Cash generated from operations 615.0 511.4 Corporation taxes paid (114.2) (113.2) ________ ________ Net cash from operating activities 500.8 398.2 ________ ________ Cash flows from investing activities Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment 3.4 8.4 Acquisition of property, plant and equipment (139.9) (177.2) Purchase of other investments - (1.0) ________ ________ Net cash from investing activities (136.5) (169.8) ________ ________ Cash flows from financing activities Proceeds from issue of share capital - 0.1 Repurchase of own shares (316.3) (217.5) Purchase of own shares by ESOT (24.8) (14.9) Proceeds from disposal of shares by ESOT 27.8 15.7 Proceeds from issue of corporate bond 250.0 - (Repayment)/proceeds of unsecured bank loans (100.2) 100.3 Interest paid (28.6) (21.4) Interest received 3.8 1.2 Payment of finance lease liabilities (0.5) (0.2) Dividends paid (103.9) (103.7) ________ ________ Net cash from financing activities (292.7) (240.4) ________ ________ Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 71.6 (12.0) Opening cash and cash equivalents 38.4 50.0 Effect of exchange rate fluctuations on cash held (0.8) 0.4 ________ ________ Closing cash and cash equivalents (Note 4) 109.2 38.4 ________ ________ NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 1. Basis of Preparation The condensed consolidated financial statements for the year ended 27 January 2007 have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted for use in the European Union and the accounting policies set out in the NEXT plc Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 28 January 2006. The condensed consolidated financial statements are unaudited and do not represent statutory accounts within the meaning of Section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. Statutory accounts for the year ended 28 January 2006 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and included an audit report which was unqualified and which did not contain any statement under Section 237 of the Companies Act 1985. 2. Earnings Per Share The calculation of basic earnings per share is based on £331.5m (2006: £313.5m) being the profit for the year after taxation and 226.9m ordinary shares of 10p each (2006: 246.2m), being the weighted average number of shares in issue less the weighted average number of shares held by the ESOT during the year. Diluted earnings per share is based on £331.5m (2006: £313.5m) being the profit for the year after taxation and 229.7m ordinary shares of 10p each (2006: 249.1m) being the weighted average number of shares used for the calculation of basic earnings per share above increased by the dilutive effect of potential ordinary shares from employee share option schemes of 2.8m shares (2006: 2.9m shares). 3. Reconciliation of Equity Year Year to January to January 2007 2006 £m £m Total recognised income and expense 341.7 299.9 Shares purchased for cancellation (316.3) (181.1) Issue of new shares - 0.1 Shares purchased by ESOT (24.8) (14.9) Shares issued by ESOT 27.8 15.7 Share option charge 8.3 8.1 Equity dividends paid (103.6) (104.4) ________ ________ Total movement during the period (66.9) 23.4 Opening total equity 256.2 232.8 ________ ________ Closing total equity 189.3 256.2 ________ ________ 4. Analysis of Net Debt Other January Cash non-cash January 2006 flow changes 2007 £m £m £m £m Cash and short term deposits 69.8 121.7 Overdrafts (31.4) (12.5) ________ ________ Cash and cash equivalents 38.4 71.6 (0.8) 109.2 Unsecured bank loans (100.3) 100.2 - (0.1) Corporate bonds (298.1) (250.0) 16.9 (531.2) Fair value hedges of corporate bonds (4.5) - (14.9) (19.4) Finance leases (2.6) 0.5 (0.2) (2.3) ________ ________ ________ ________ Total net debt (367.1) (77.7) 1.0 (443.8) ________ ________ ________ ________ It is intended that the recommended dividend will be paid on 2 July 2007 to shareholders registered on 25 May 2007. The Annual General Meeting will be held at the Belmont House Hotel, De Montford Street, Leicester LE1 7GR on Wednesday 16 May 2007. The Annual Report and Accounts will be sent to shareholders by 12 April 2007 and copies will be available from the Company's registered office: Desford Road, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 4AT and on the Company's website at www.next.co.uk. This statement, the full text of the Stock Exchange announcement and the results presentation can be found on the Company's website at www.next.co.uk. Certain statements which appear in this announcement may constitute ' forward-looking statements' which are all matters that are not historical facts, including anticipated financial and operational performance, business prospects and similar matters. These forward-looking statements are identifiable by words such as 'believe', 'estimate', 'anticipate', 'plan', 'intend', 'aim', 'forecast ', 'expect', 'project' and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements reflect NEXT's current expectations concerning future events and actual results may differ materially from current expectations or historical results. Any such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to failure by NEXT to predict accurately customer fashion preferences; decline in the demand for merchandise offered by NEXT; competitive influences; changes in level of store traffic or consumer spending habits; effectiveness of NEXT's brand awareness and marketing programmes; general economic conditions or a downturn in the retail industry; the inability of NEXT to successfully implement relocation or expansion of existing stores; lack of sufficient consumer interest in NEXT Directory; acts of war or terrorism worldwide; work stoppages, slowdowns or strikes; and changes in financial and equity markets. These forward-looking statements do not amount to any representation that they will be achieved as they involve risks and uncertainties and relate to events and depend upon circumstances which may or may not occur in the future and there can be no guarantee of future performance. Undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date of this document. NEXT do not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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