LONDON, Sept 19 (Askume) – The boss of clothing retailer Next (NXT.L) said on Thursday the outlook for British consumers remains positive , adding that current data gives no indication of any fundamental disturbances.
In March this year, Simon Wolfson, the longest-serving CEO of the FTSE 100 Index in the UK, said the UK consumer outlook was the best it had been in 2020 before the outbreak .
However, the UK textile industry fell on hard times, with an unseasonably cold spring and a cool, wet early summer impacting sales.
Demand has rebounded since July, with Next reporting its sales for the first six weeks of the second half of the financial year “well above expectations”.
“I don’t think it’s as bad as it looked in the summer,” Wolfson told Askume in an interview.
“We believe sales will become increasingly volatile as customers postpone more and more purchasing decisions until they really need goods,” he said after Next reported half-year results .
Wolfson said the market for “big-ticket” discretionary home furnishings remains tough. “But we believe that has more to do with the housing market stalling than commodity prices.”
The chief executive also stressed that the health of Next’s financial business is a good indicator of the health of UK consumers.
“People are paying down their balances a little faster than last year, which is a positive sign for consumers, and default rates are the lowest they’ve ever been,” he said.
“There’s nothing in our data to suggest there’s any underlying discomfort.”
Wolfson said a potential dark cloud on the horizon that could dampen the consumer economy is a weak job market, but he was encouraged that the job market has not yet contracted.
