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Next plc (styled as NEXT) is a British multinational clothing, footwear and home products retailer, which has its headquarters in Enderby, England. It has around 700 stores, of which circa 500 are in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and circa 200 across
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
,
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...
and the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
. Next is the largest clothing retailer by sales in the United Kingdom, having overtaken
Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
in early 2012 and 2014. It is listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pa ...
and is a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100  companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest mar ...
.


History


Hepworth

The company was founded by
Joseph Hepworth Joseph Hepworth (c. 1876 – 11 May 1945) was a British Conservative Party politician. At the 1931 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford East, defeating the sitting Labour Party MP Fred Jowett. He was re- ...
in
Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...
in 1864 as a tailor under the name of Joseph Hepworth & Son. Initially Hepworth was in partnership with James Rhodes, but the partnership was dissolved in 1872. On his own, Hepworth expanded the company rapidly, becoming a pioneer of the development of chain stores in Britain. By 1884 the company had 100 outlets. For much of its history Hepworth was predominantly in the ready-to-wear suit market. In 1963, the company brought in the celebrated Savile Row designer Hardy Amies to help revitalise its ready-to-wear suit collection.


Kendall's and Next

In 1981, the company bought womenswear retailer Kendall and Sons for £1.75 million from the retail conglomerate Combined English Stores. This gave Hepworth over 600 shops in British high streets. The intention was to redevelop Kendall's stores as a womenswear chain of shops to complement Hepworth as a chain of menswear stores. Designer
Terence Conran Sir Terence Orby Conran (4 October 1931 – 12 September 2020) was an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. He founded the Design Museum in Shad Thames, London in 1989 The British designer Thomas Heatherwick said that Conran " ...
was Chairman of Hepworth at that time, and recruited George Davies to work at Kendall's. However, Davies's concept was to create a new chain, called Next, initially by converting Kendall's stores. The first Next shops opened on 12 February 1982, with the Kendall's conversion complete by the end of 1983. Appointed chief executive in 1984, Davies then converted 50 Hepworth stores to the Next format, extending the range to cover menswear. This allowed the development of mini department stores selling women's and men's clothes. This was added to by the introduction of Next interiors to stores which were deemed in the "right demographical areas." In 1986, Davies moved the group's headquarters from Leeds to Leicester, to be closer to the main garment manufacturers, and the company name was changed to Next plc. In 1987, the group acquired Combined English Stores and the Grattan catalogue company. Extending first to introduce Next childrenswear, Davies then introduced the Next Directory. By 1988, "after seven years of growth, Next had over-expanded suicidally" .. "some stores were not bringing in enough to pay the rent." Davies was sacked and the share price fell to 7p. Chairman Sir David Jones accused Davies of being egotistical and taking Next to the verge of bankruptcy. In October 1988, Next sold 433 jewellery stores in the United Kingdom, which principally traded under the Salisburys and Zales brands, to the Ratners Group for US$232 million. The company bought the youth brand Lipsy in 2008. In autumn 2009, Next launched an online catalogue for the United States offering clothing, shoes and accessories for women, men and children. Next's prices in Ireland attracted criticism in 2009 when the company was one of four retailers accused of failing to pass on exchange rate savings to shoppers in the Republic. In July 2010, a BBC investigation found Next was breaking the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 by billing customers for its delivery costs even if goods were returned within the seven working days. A spokesman for Next admitted that they had been doing this for three years but promised to comply by August 2010.
Trading Standards Trading Standards are the local authority departments with the United Kingdom, formerly known as ''Weights and Measures'', that enforce consumer protection legislation. Sometimes, the Trading Standards enforcement functions of a local authority ...
said that the DSRs had been in force for ten years, and there was no excuse for not adhering to them. In 2014, Next launched localised cross-border sales to
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...
.


Wages controversy

In May 2014, the
Living Wage Foundation The Living Wage Foundation is a campaigning organisation in the United Kingdom which aims to persuade employers to pay a living wage. The organisation was established in 2011, publishes an annual Living Wage figure and for a fee accredits employer ...
bought Next shares and attended the annual general meeting in an attempt to persuade the company to pay at least £6.70 and become one of the UK's 700 living wage employers. Next was targeted because it claimed to be a good employer and was thriving. Professor Sir George Bain, who set the minimum wage in 1999, said employers could afford to pay much more but acknowledged enforcement could cause unemployment in the retail sector. In October 2014, the company was one of several retailers criticised by journalist Janice Turner in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...
'' for failing to pay what she described as a living wage. Turner further argued UK taxpayers pay £28 billion to low-paid workers through
tax credits A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "disc ...
, and retail companies – which have the highest proportion of low paid workers – are exploiting austerity and effectively adding staff wages to the UK welfare bill. When asked to explain the salaries of lower-wage workers despite large profits, a Next spokesperson replied that the company had thirty applicants for every job advertised.


Financial data

Numbers are in millions of pounds:


Operations

Next has three main channels: Next Retail, a chain of 550+ retail branches in the United Kingdom; Next Directory, a home shopping catalogue and website with more than 3 million active customers, and Next International, with 180+ international stores. Its other businesses include Next Sourcing, for own brand products; Lipsy, which designs and sells its own branded younger women's fashion products through wholesale, retail and website channels. Next operates stores and e-commerce for Victoria's Secret in the UK. In September 2021, Next announced a joint venture with Gap. Next will manage Gap's UK website and place Gap concessions in some Next stores. The deal preserves Gap's presence on the UK high street after Gap announced in July 2021 it would close all of its UK stores. In September 2018, the company's Irish operations profits were separated from Next plc. Next (Ireland) Ltd was formally established to focus on the distribution of products in its physical stores and its online store in the Republic of Ireland. At the same time Next Germany was established. In November 2022, it was announced Next had acquired the
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
-headquartered furniture retailer, Made.com - which (in the same month) had gone into
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...
. In December 2022, the company entered into a joint venture with Tom Joule to buy The Joules Group out of administration.


Logos and marketing

Until circa 1991 Next used a lower case
Courier A courier is a person or organisation that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...
-style typeface in black against a white background for its logo. This was replaced by the capitalised NEXT logo in a
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
-serif style type face. There were some variations of this such as the logo with each letter of NEXT in an individual square and in some stores in 2005/2006 had the Next logo in a varying blue & black background with "X's" printed on them, as opposed to the black background. In addition, some variations in typeface occurred during the logo's use – including similar fonts that had serifs positioned above the "T" crossbar, similar to
Garamond Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and ...
and others that had more in common with
Times New Roman Times New Roman is a serif typeface. It was commissioned by the British newspaper ''The Times'' in 1931 and conceived by Stanley Morison, the artistic adviser to the British branch of the printing equipment company Monotype Imaging, Monotype, in ...
. In 2007 a new next logo was introduced, although the previous logo continued to be used until stock was exhausted. Next clothing often carries reference to the origins of the company in 1982 with use of "82" or "1982" as a design feature on clothes in all ranges. Prior to 2007 Next only advertised immediately prior to a sale, usually through brief television spots and newspaper advertising. In 2007 following a "disappointing" 7.2% fall in like for like sales, it announced it was investing "£17 million over the next three years to revive its existing stores and product offering" + an additional £10m for marketing. Yasmin Le Bon who modelled in the first Next Directory in Spring 1988 featured in an on-line fashion show. In September 2007, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Next launched its first television campaign in twelve years named 'Ali's Party' with the song '
Suddenly I See "Suddenly I See" is a song by Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall from her debut studio album, ''Eye to the Telescope'' (2004). It was inspired by New York singer and poet Patti Smith, whose album cover for ''Horses (album), Horses'' (1975) a ...
' and starring Brazilian supermodel
Alessandra Ambrosio Alessandra Corine Ambrósio (; born 11 April 1981) is a Brazilian-American model. She is known for her work with Victoria's Secret and was chosen as the first spokesmodel for the company's PINK line. Ambrosio was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 20 ...
. All extra casts were Next employees, otherwise nicknamed 'nextras'. A second advert featuring Ambrosio, was screened in November 2007 and the songs were regularly played instore during the campaign. An advert directed by Ben Watts and filmed on the banks of the
River Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...
was shown in September 2010 to reflect the season's
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
ian chic styles. It was soundtracked by
The Specials The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, are an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, Lyn ...
’ " A Message to You, Rudy" and starred Brazilian model Emanuela de Paula and Spanish actor Jon Kortajarena.


See also

*
Wolfson family The Wolfson family is a British Jewish family known for its business, philanthropic, and political activities. The family owes its initial fame to Sir Isaac Wolfson, who built the Great Universal Stores retail empire and created the Wolfson Fou ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Next plc 1864 establishments in the United Kingdom Clothing brands of the United Kingdom Clothing retailers of the United Kingdom Clothing retailers of Ireland Companies based in Leicestershire British companies established in 1864 Retail companies established in 1864 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange