Next chief executive Lord Wolfson defended the warning on Thursday, telling reporters that the comments were “certainly not a threat” should it lose the appeal.
He said: “We’re not threatening to do anything. It is just pointing out the reality of store openings and closures. You wouldn’t expect a retailer to renew a lease in a shop that’s making a loss.”
Next’s equal pay case is the first of a flurry set to hit UK retailers. The lawyers who represented the female employees in its case are also representing more than 112,000 staff who work across Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Co-op in similar claims.
Lord Wolfson said the ramifications for some of those businesses would be larger than others.
The comments came alongside Next’s latest set of results for the six months to July, in which it upgraded forecasts for a second time in two months.
The business, which is seen as a bellwether for the retail sector, said it was now expecting profits to come in £15m higher than its previous forecasts for the full year to the end of January. Pre-tax profits are set to come in just under £1bn, it suggested.
The upgrade came after sales that “materially exceeded” its expectations in the first six months of the year.
Revenues were up 13.6pc in the period to hit £2.9bn while profits rose 3.9pc to £432m.
The rise was fuelled by strong growth overseas, where sales jumped by 23pc to hit £433m. Next said there had been a “convergence” of international fashion tastes, with more people watching streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and TikTok, which was encouraging them to try clothes that were popular in other countries.
The strong financials led to Next shares rising by 6pc in early trading, although it later pared some of those gains and was up just 0.6pc in late afternoon.