Retail giant Next has warned it will hike prices of its spring summer clothing and homewares by 8% as rising costs bite.
Shoppers will also see price increases into the fall and winter, the retailer said, but the increase won’t be as sharp.
While Next reported strong holiday sales, it gave a cautious outlook for the coming year.
High energy bills and mortgage costs would dampen consumer demand.
Next said it expects price increases across the company to slow to “no more than” 6% in the second half of the year as issues like shipping costs calm down and the cost of key items like cotton and polyester fall.
The high street giant reported a 4.8% increase in sales for the nine weeks ended December 30 after a “dramatic boost” from last month’s cold weather.
“We believe the strength of demand for cold-weather products in December was partly due to pent-up demand from an unusually warm October and November,” it said.
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