LONDON: NEXT Plc has announced a net profit of £590.4 million for the year ended January 2019, down 0.23% compared with the profit of £591.8 million in the year ended January 2018.

The earnings per share (EPS) for the period under review clocked in at 435.3p as against 416.7p in the corresponding last year. Next PLC declared ordinary dividend of 165p/share along with the corporate results.

[the_ad id=”32940″]“As anticipated, the year to January 2019 was challenging for NEXT as we continued to experience a structural change in our business, with sales continuing to transfer from our stores to online.   Despite this, Earnings per Share for the Group increased by 4.5% to 435.3p.  We are proposing a final ordinary dividend of 110p taking the total ordinary dividend for the year to 165p, an increase of 4.4% on last year,” Micheal Rooney Chairman NEXT Plc said is a statement issued to London Stock Exchange.

“Total Group sales were £4.2 billion. Cash flow remained strong and we returned £541 million to shareholders through a combination of ordinary dividends (£216 million) and share buybacks (£325 million).  During the year we purchased 6.3 million shares at an average price of £51.65 and reduced our shares in issue by 4.3%”.

“We have continued to invest in the business, spending £129 million on stores, warehousing and systems.  Net debt increased to £1,096 million from £1,002 million driven by the sales growth in nextpay, our online credit business.  Net debt of £1.1 billion remains well within our bond and bank facilities of £1.5 billion and broadly aligned to our Online debtor book”.

NEXT trades from more than 500 stores in the UK and Eire and around 200 stores in 40 countries overseas.