Next will continue the rollout of its new DIY and garden centre format when it launches a third outlet later this year.
The new store, in Warrington, will join the Ipswich store, which opened in June, and the first of the new-style outlets, which was introduced last August in Shoreham, West Sussex.

And buoyed by the success of the format the retailer is now pressing ahead with plans to build a chain of the Next Home and Garden superstores.

A spokesperson for Next told diyweek.net: "Warrington will open toward the end of this year." And he added: "Next are in the process of looking at up to five sites, though they haven't put in planning permission for five."

Ultimately, though, the retailer hopes almost to quadruple that number. Releasing its annual results to January 2012 earlier this year, it stated: "In August we opened a new large concept store in Shoreham which has proven extremely successful...We have identified 19 other sites around the UK where we would ideally like to open similar stores.

"However, we expect progress to be slow as almost all of these sites require planning permission."

The Next spokesperson confirmed to diyweek.net that the retailer was still targeting 19 stores, but denied reports in the national press that the Shoreham outlet was now one of its top-performing shops, with the best Sunday trading figures of any of its other stores.

However, in the statement released with its yearly results the company did emphasise the profitability of its Home standalone stores - of which there are now 43 - saying that they were "extremely profitable and provide an efficient return on capital invested. The Home standalone portfolio makes a 21% net branch profit."

The new Home and Garden superstores combine a Next fashion offer with DIY products such as paint, power tools and tiles, homewares including carpets, blinds, flooring, taps and sinks, and a garden centre.

Said the spokesperson: "I think the appeal is that people get in their cars and drive at the weekend, and Britain loves gardening. They can shop [in the Home and Garden superstores] for home products as well as baby products and gardening."