Next plc Income Rises 6.8%

Next plc, parent of the Next Directory catalog, posted net income of $353.9 million pounds ($701.3 million) for the year ended Jan. 31, a 6.8% increase over 331.5 million pounds ($656.9 million) in the prior year.

The U.K.-based firm reported revenue of 3.1 billion pounds ($6.1 billion) for the year, a 5.2% increase over 3 billion pounds ($6 billion) last year.

The Next Directory posted a 14.3% increase in net income over the prior year.

The catalog reported a 3.3% increase in sales for the year.

The firm attributed these results in part to a 1.2% increase in the average number of active customers and a 16.5% increase in pages.

Next noted that the majority of these additional pages went to new and developing product areas such as home furnishings.