Next says prices to rise by 8% in autumn amid ‘chronic’ staff shortages

theguardian.com:

The boss of Next has called on the government to make it easier for workers to come to the UK, as the retailer said staff shortages, as well as disruption from the war in Ukraine, would fuel an 8% rise in its prices this autumn.

Next said its homeware prices were now expected to rise by up to 13% and fashion by 6.5% in the second half of this year, a significant step up from an overall 3.7% increase in prices in the first part of the year.

Simon Wolfson, its chief executive and a prominent pro-Brexit business voice, called on the government to “reverse the self-defeating barriers it has placed on overseas workers supporting our economy and accelerate, simplify and reform the planning process to increase the supply of desperately needed housing”.

He argued that inflation was being fuelled by “chronic labour shortages” alongside disruption in global supply chains.

The call came as Next downgraded profit hopes for the year as it revealed it would take an £85m hit from the closure of websites in Ukraine and Russia.

However, the company said better than expected sales in the UK meant it was downgrading profit expectations for the year ahead by just £18m to £850m, which would be 3% ahead of those for the year to January 2022.

Wolfson said a return to more formal dressing was fuelling better than expected sales in the UK in the first few months of 2022, while there had been a “notable reduction” in spending on homewares and very casual clothing in a reversal of lockdown trends.

He said the outlook was hard to predict amid further disruption in supply chains and competition for shoppers’ cash from inflation on essentials, likely mortgage rate increases and a return to spending on leisure and travel.

The adjustment to its profit outlook