A British clothing, footwear and home retailer based in Enderby, Leicestershire, selling through UK stores and the Next website.
Next is one of the UK's biggest clothing, footwear and home retailers. Customers can shop in around 500 UK stores or online through the Next website, which has over three million active customers. It sells womenswear, menswear, childrenswear and homeware, much of it designed for Next. Over the years it has also taken on other well-known names, including Lipsy, Joules, Cath Kidston, FatFace, Victoria's Secret UK and Gap UK. Next Sourcing handles the supply of its own-brand products, and Next also sells other labels on its website alongside its own ranges. Its Victoria's Secret UK business covers stores and online, and a joint venture announced in 2021 runs Gap's UK website and places Gap concessions in Next stores.
The business goes back to 1864, when Joseph Hepworth started a tailoring firm in Leeds. The first Next shops opened on 12 February 1982, converted from Kendall & Sons stores that had been bought a year earlier. George Davies became chief executive in 1984 and added menswear, and in 1986 the head office moved to Leicester and the company was renamed Next plc. The Next Directory catalogue began in 1988, which is how the business first sold to customers at home as well as on the high street. The company grew quickly in the 1980s, buying Combined English Stores and the Grattan catalogue business in 1987, then went through a hard reset after rapid over-expansion in 1988. Next overtook Marks and Spencer as the UK's largest clothing retailer by sales in 2012 and 2014, according to Wikipedia.
We did not find a short mission statement on the pages we could read. An older company profile said its aim was to be "the natural choice retailer in the UK" for fashion-aware people, with a strategy of one brand and two ways of shopping, in store and by catalogue. That is dated, so treat it as history rather than a current slogan.
Next is headquartered in Enderby, Leicestershire, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange in the FTSE 100. Its UK stores run from city centres to retail parks, and sources give slightly different store totals, between about 460 and 550, so use around 500 as a guide. The company employs about 50,000 people, led by Lord Wolfson as chief executive and Michael Roney as chairman. Next Sourcing looks after its own-brand products. Its subsidiaries include a 44 percent stake in JoJo Maman Bebe and 72 percent of Reiss. More recent brands joined through rescues, including Made.com in 2022, Joules in 2022, Cath Kidston in 2023 and Russell and Bromley in January 2026.
Because the company runs stores, a large online business, distribution and design, it employs people in many kinds of job. These include store teams, buying and merchandising, design, logistics and warehouse work, technology and finance. That makes it a good place to see how a modern retailer joins up shops, websites and delivery under one roof.
Website: www.next.co.uk
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