Maybe pro-Brexit Simon Wolfson has more chance than most of being heard by ministers stuck in 2016’s ideological prison
Things must be bad when Next’s mild-mannered chief executive, Simon Wolfson, is quoting second world war generals. Actually, no, the battlefield line he had in mind was William Slim’s one about how nothing is ever as good or as bad as the first excited reports would have it.
Fair point. Next has sailed through the pandemic lockdown period in remarkable style. Trading in the first half “materially exceeded expectations” and the full-year forecast is £800m, which would be the highest outcome for half a decade. Current buoyant conditions won’t last for ever, said Wolfson, but the long-term outlook for Next is “more positive than it has been for many years”, not least because the physical shops are less of a drag now that online trade accounts for 70% of turnover.
