Next profit warning suggests difficult Christmas for high street retailers

Next, seen as one of the bellwethers of the British high street, saw sales fall in the run-up to Christmas and has warned that the outlook for 2017 will be “challenging” for retailers.
Full-price sales for the 54 days to 24 December were down by 0.4%. While this was an improvement on the third quarter, when sales fell by 3.5%, Next says it was expecting growth due to its weak performance in the final quarter of 2015.
Sales at its end-of-season sale, which runs from Boxing Day and ty