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Next benefits from M&S hack and hot weather
Kalyeena Makortoff
Next has reported bumper sales between May and July, as sunnier UK weather and a disruptive hack at rival M&S sent customers flocking to the clothes and homewares retailer.
Full price sales at Next in the thirteen weeks to 26 July surged by 10.5%, which was £49m ahead of its guidance for the period for a 6.5% rise in takings.
Next said, referring to the devastating cyber-attack that hit retailer M&S:
In the UK, we believe that the over-performance was largely due to better than expected weather and trading disruption at a major competitor.
The hack forced M&S to pause customer orders through its website for almost seven weeks, before resuming them in June, and let to some shortages in stores.
But Next said its own international sales also grew faster than expected, which it chalked up to a digital marketing strategy that “proved more effective than anticipated”.
European stock market indices have risen on Thursday morning. The FTSE 100 dipped in the opening trades in London, but a few minutes later it is up 0.2% – helped by a big 10% gain for Rolls-Royce after its latest profit upgrade.
Here are the opening European snaps, via Reuters:
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EUROPE’S STOXX 600 UP 0.15%
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GERMANY’S DAX UP 0.32%
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FRANCE’S CAC 40 UP 0.1%; SPAIN’S IBEX UP 0.98%
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EURO STOXX INDEX UP 0.24%; EURO ZONE BLUE CHIPS UP 0.29%
Shell's $4.3bn profits raise anger; Rolls-Royce adds £400m to earnings forecast
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of business, economics and financial markets.
It is a bit of a barrage of company earnings today, led by FTSE 100 oil company Shell.
Shell reported adjusted earnings of $4.3bn (£3.2bn) for the second quarter of 2025, better than the $3.7bn expected by analysts – albeit lower than the $6.3bn it reported the same time a year ago.
Nevertheless, it was the 15th consecutive quarter that the oil company has returned more than $3bn to shareholders via buybacks – with another $3.5bn added today, plus dividends of $2.1bn.
The almost four-year shareholder bonanza was a period that included the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sparked a global energy crisis that was damaging to household finances – but hugely profitable for oil companies.
Shell’s profits sparked anger among environmental campaigners, after the company last year rolled back decarbonisation targets.
Robin Wells, director of Fossil Free London, a campaign group that protested outside Shell’s headquarters last night, said:
We are now in a new normal of record-breaking heat, created by corporations like Shell. This will mean devastation and mass loss of human life. Climate scientists have warned us that this new normal will spell the end of human civilization by 2100. It’s time for destruction to stop raising billions in profit.
Rolls-Royce raises profits forecasts by £400m
Rolls-Royce is another company that has delivered huge returns to shareholders with a turnaround plan that has been helped by the recovery of air travel since the coronavirus pandemic.
The jet engine manufacturer said underlying operating profit rose by 50% to £1.7bn for the first half of 2025, with a profit margin of 19.1%.
The manufacturer, whose main operations are in Derby, raised its profit forecast for the year from a range of £2.7bn-£2.9bn to £3.1bn-£3.2bn. It has also been helped by the huge boom in weapons spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; Rolls-Royce makes jet engines for fighter jets.
The agenda
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10am BST: Eurozone unemployment rate (June; previous: 6.3%; consensus: 6.3%)
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10am BST: Italy inflation rate (July; previous: 1.7%; consensus: 1.5%)
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1pm BST: Germany inflation rate (July; previous: 2%; consensus: 1.9%)
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1:30pm BST: US core personal consumption expenditures inflation rate (June; previous: 0.2%; consensus: 0.3%)
