Fashion and homewares retailer Next has reported a “better than expected” first quarter as sales almost doubled its initial forecast.

According to its latest trading update for the 13 weeks to 26 April 2025, total sales were up 11.4% against the previous period last year, an increase of £55m ahead of its expectations, which was forecast to be up by 6.5%.

“We believe much of the over-performance in the first quarter has been the result of warmer weather, which has benefited the sale of summer-weight clothing,” Next said. “It is likely that some of these sales have been pulled forward from Q2. So, despite the strength of Q1, we are not increasing our sales guidance for Q2, or the rest of the year (£5.4bn).

“Accounting for the £55m of additional sales in Q1, we are increasing our guidance for NEXT Group profit before tax for the full year by +£14m to £1,080m.

Online sales rose 8.9%, while retail store sales increased 5.2%, with overall UK sales up by 7.3%. Online international sales rose 29.6% in the period.

“Our performance in both the UK and overseas was better than we had anticipated. Sales in our Retail shops have been much stronger than we expected but, in our experience, shops benefit disproportionately from the favourable weather. So we are expecting our Retail sales to return to being broadly flat for the rest of the year.”