Next's sales boosted by sunny weather and M&S cyber-attack

Next has reported bumper sales between May and July.

- Kalyeena Makortoff

Full-price sales in the 13 weeks to 26 July rose by 10.5%, compared with the same period last year, which was £49m ahead of its guidance forecast of a 6.5% rise in takings.

"In the UK, we believe that the over-performance was largely due to better than expected weather and trading disruption at a major competitor," Next said, referring to the damaging cyber-attack that forced M&S to pause online customer orders for almost seven weeks and led to some shortages in stores.