Next comfortable with profit forecasts

LONDON (Reuters) - Clothes retailer Next Plc (NXT.L) said on Wednesday it was comfortable with analysts' full-year profit forecasts, which are now grouped between around 430 million to 440 million pounds.

Next said in May that it was comfortable with a forecast range which at that time was 430 million to 460 million pounds.

"There's no change to that (guidance), but it's more likely to be around the market average which is 430 million to 440 million," Finance Director David Keens told Reuters, noting that many analysts had cut forecasts recently amid worsening economic conditions.

Keens said in a telephone interview that Next had cleared around 80 percent of its end-of-season sale and it expected the remainder to be sold over the next one to two weeks.

He added the group was determined to return like-for-like sales to growth, but that it was "too early to call" whether this could happen in the first half of 2009.

Earlier on Wednesday, Next reported a 6 percent drop in first-half underlying like-for-like sales at its shops, in line with expectations, and forecast a similar decline foe the second half.

(Reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by Erica Billingham)