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Next MILITARY

MILITARY AUDIT UPDATED 2026-06-15
Military Score 0.00 /10 D Next - BDS-1000 228
Military 0.00

Evidence-only forensic audit. Scoring happens downstream - see the main dossier for the composite assessment.

Military Audit - Next plc (LSE: NXT)

Audit Phase: Military Subject Entity: Next plc (LSE: NXT; Companies House no. 04521395) - UK fashion, homeware and online-retail group Registered Address: Desford Road, Enderby, Leicester LE19 4AT, United Kingdom Audit Date: June 2026 Scope: Forensic inventory of any military or defence nexus between Next plc and the Israeli military, security, or defence sector - direct defence contracting, dual-use supply, heavy machinery, supply-chain integration with Israeli defence primes, logistical sustainment, munitions/weapons platforms, export-licensing history, and documented civil-society scrutiny. Evidence only; no scoring or interpretation. Evidence Base: Israeli and UK defence-export references, NGO corporate-accountability databases (Who Profits, AFSC Investigate), the UN OHCHR settlements database and its September 2025 update, UK strategic-export-control material, UK Charity Commission filings, corporate disclosures, and trade and activist reporting. All claims carry an inline reference marker; source URLs appear only in the End Notes.

Direct Defence Contracting & Procurement

No public evidence identified of any contract, tender award, framework agreement, or memorandum of understanding between Next plc and the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Israel Prison Service, the Israel Border Police, or any other Israeli state security or intelligence body.

Next plc is a civilian fashion, footwear, homeware and online-retail group; its commercial offering and corporate disclosures describe no defence-contracting capability, security-sector revenue, or military procurement relationship in any jurisdiction.1

No public evidence identified of Next plc appearing in the listings of Israel’s defence-export and defence-cooperation directorate (SIBAT) or in any Israeli Ministry of Defense procurement registry. No consumer-retail entity matching Next plc is recorded in the publicly accessible defence-export material reviewed.2

A separate Israeli company, Nextcom Group, is profiled by the Who Profits Research Center as holding Israeli Ministry of Defense contracts for military communications infrastructure; that entity is unrelated to Next plc and is recorded here only to prevent name conflation.3

No public evidence identified of Next plc as an exhibitor, sponsor, or participant at international defence exhibitions, or of any defence cooperation, joint venture, or partnership announcement involving Next plc and an Israeli defence entity.12

Dual-Use Products & Tactical Variants

No public evidence identified of Next plc manufacturing, marketing, or supplying any ruggedised, tactical, mil-spec, or defence-grade product line to any end-user, including Israeli military or security end-users.

Next plc’s product portfolio - clothing, footwear, accessories and homeware sold through its store estate and the nextdirect.com platform - is documented entirely under civilian retail specifications.1 No Next product variant is recorded as carrying a dual-use designation under UK, EU, or Wassenaar Arrangement control schedules in any reviewed source.

No application for an end-user certificate, dual-use export licence, or technology-transfer authorisation relating to Next plc products and Israeli defence or security end-users was identified. The UK Export Control Joint Unit publishes Israel-destined licensing data disaggregated by goods category and outcome rather than by individual corporate applicant; no record naming Next plc was identified in that material.4

Secondary-market pathway (evidence gap). Whether IDF or Israeli security procurement bodies have purchased civilian-grade Next-branded apparel through ordinary commercial or secondary-market channels is not addressed in any public source identified. No such purchase is documented; this remains an uninvestigated indirect pathway rather than a finding.

Heavy Machinery, Construction & Infrastructure

No public evidence identified. Next plc does not manufacture or supply heavy machinery, construction equipment, excavation vehicles, or industrial infrastructure materials of any kind.1 No NGO field investigation, UN documentation, satellite-imagery analysis, or photographic record reviewed places Next plc equipment or assets in settlement construction, separation-barrier works, checkpoint construction, or military-installation development in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, or Gaza.

The UN OHCHR database of business enterprises involved in activities relating to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory - updated in September 2025 to list 158 enterprises from 11 countries - focuses on construction, real-estate, resource-extraction, surveillance and settlement-service activities.5 Next plc is not named in the OHCHR database or in the public summaries of its 2025 update reviewed.5

Supply Chain Integration with Defence Primes

No public evidence identified of Next plc supplying components, sub-systems, raw materials, specialist manufacturing services, or any other input to Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel Military Industries (IMI), or any other Israeli defence prime contractor. No joint development programme, co-production agreement, technology-transfer arrangement, or licensed-manufacturing agreement between Next plc and any Israeli defence firm was identified.

Delta Galil (directionality and evidence gap). Delta Galil Industries is a Tel Aviv-headquartered intimate-apparel and garment manufacturer that operates a facility in the Barkan Industrial Zone in the occupied West Bank and is reported in trade and activist sources to manufacture combat uniforms and tactical garments for the IDF.678 Those IDF-supply and settlement activities are attributable to Delta Galil, not to Next plc. Delta Galil is documented as a contract manufacturer and licensee for numerous Western apparel brands; no public source reviewed names Next plc as a customer of, or supplier to, Delta Galil, and the directionality of any apparel-industry relationship would in any event run buyer-to-vendor (a retailer purchasing civilian garments), not retailer-supplying-a-defence-prime.67 No Next plc supply relationship with Delta Galil was confirmed in the sources reviewed.

Tier-2/3 supply-chain caveat. Next plc’s garment supplier base - concentrated in garment-manufacturing countries - has not been comprehensively mapped at sub-tier level for indirect links to Israeli defence primes.1 No such link was identified; supply-chain opacity at tier-2/tier-3 level is an inherent evidence gap that cannot be closed from public disclosures alone.

Logistical Sustainment & Base Services

No public evidence identified of any Next plc contract to provide catering, transport, fuel supply, waste management, facilities management, telecommunications, or any other logistical or sustainment service to IDF bases, military training facilities, detention centres, or security installations in any area, including the West Bank, Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, or the Negev.

Next plc operates a civilian retail logistics network, including its “Total Platform” warehousing, distribution and e-commerce-fulfilment service offered to third-party brands.1 No component of this network was documented in any reviewed source as serving Israeli defence logistics, military cargo movements, or arms shipments.

Total Platform third-party clients (evidence gap). Total Platform services third-party retail clients, including the Next-controlled brand Reiss.910 Whether any Total Platform client maintains a defence-sector relationship with Israel was not examined in any public source reviewed and remains an uninvestigated indirect pathway, not a finding.

No shipping, freight-forwarding, or port-handling contract held by Next plc that services Israeli military or security logistics was identified.1

Munitions, Weapons Systems & Strategic Platforms

No public evidence identified. Next plc has no documented role - as prime contractor, licensed manufacturer, sub-system integrator, or component supplier - in the production of small arms, artillery, armoured vehicles, unmanned aerial systems, naval vessels, or any other lethal platform for any end-user, including Israeli defence and security end-users.1

No public evidence identified of Next plc supplying ammunition, explosive ordnance, propellants, warhead components, or munitions-precursor materials to any end-user in any jurisdiction.1

No public evidence identified of any Next plc role in the manufacture, integration, maintenance, or component supply of Israeli strategic defence platforms - including Iron Dome, David’s Sling, the Arrow missile-defence system, F-35I “Adir” aircraft, Merkava main battle tanks, Sa’ar-class corvettes, or any ballistic-missile system.

Export Licensing, Regulatory & Legal History

No public evidence identified of any government decision in any jurisdiction - including the United Kingdom, European Union member states, or the United States - to grant, deny, suspend, or revoke an export licence for Next plc products to Israeli military or security end-users. Next plc does not appear as a named applicant or licence-holder in publicly reported UK strategic-export-control or arms-licensing data concerning defence or dual-use exports to Israel.4

No investigation, enforcement citation, or regulatory action against Next plc relating to arms-embargo compliance, export-control obligations, or sanctions compliance in the context of defence trade with Israel or any other jurisdiction was identified.4

No court proceedings, judicial review, or legal challenge - brought against Next plc or against a government body concerning a Next plc export application - relating to a defence or military supply relationship with Israel was identified in available legal reporting or civil-society documentation.

Note on UK export-control granularity. UK strategic-export-control reporting publishes licence decisions disaggregated by destination country and goods category rather than routinely naming individual corporate applicants, so a corporate-level absence cannot be confirmed with absolute certainty from that source alone.4 The absence of any consumer-retail entity from the Israel-destined defence and dual-use licence categories reviewed is nonetheless consistent with the overall finding of no Next plc defence-export activity.4

Civil Society Scrutiny & Documented Investigations

NGO & Database Listings

No active corporate profile categorising Next plc as a defence, military, or security-sector company was identified in the principal corporate-accountability databases. Next plc is not listed in the UN OHCHR settlements database.5 The Who Profits Research Center entry returned for the search term “Next” covers the unrelated Israeli company Nextcom Group, not Next plc.3 Where NGO and activist sources discuss Next plc, the evidentiary focus is on the company’s ownership by the Wolfson family and on the family’s charitable giving in Israel - not on weapons, ordnance, defence contracting, or security services.1112

Founding-Family Charitable Giving (Personnel - Indirect, Non-Corporate)

Lord (Simon) Wolfson is Chief Executive of Next plc and a Conservative life peer.13 He is also one of five trustees of The Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust (UK Charity Commission no. 238043), a registered charity whose other trustees include the Hon. Andrew Daniel Wolfson (Chair) and Lord (Jonathan) Mendelsohn, and whose stated objects are general charitable purposes with special regard to medical and surgical research, education, child welfare, religion and the relief of poverty.14

The Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust is listed as a “Founder Benefactor” of Beit Halochem UK.15 Beit Halochem UK funds the Israeli Beit Halochem (“House of Warriors”) rehabilitation centres for wounded IDF veterans; activist reporting states the trust has donated over £600,000 to Beit Halochem since 2018.1115 The Beit Halochem centres in Israel are documented as operating in collaboration with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to rehabilitate soldiers officially recognised by the Ministry as Zahal disabled veterans.16

These are donations by a family charitable trust of which Simon Wolfson is one trustee, not a corporate act of Next plc; no reviewed source attributes any Beit Halochem donation, or any military or veteran-welfare funding, to Next plc the corporate entity. The separate Wolfson Family Charitable Trust describes its Israel grant-making as funding science, medicine and health equipment via universities and hospitals, with no military, defence, IDF, soldier, or veteran category disclosed.17

Boycott, Divestment & Consumer-Pressure Campaigns

Next plc appears on consumer-facing BDS and boycott listings, with the publicly articulated grounds resting on the Wolfson family’s ownership of Next and the family’s charitable giving in Israel; the boycott materials reviewed do not identify Next plc as an arms exporter, defence contractor, or military supplier.111218

Israel Retail Presence (Commercial Context)

Next plc has publicly stated it has no plans to open physical stores in Israel and will continue serving Israeli customers online.19 The Next-controlled brand Reiss - in which Next plc holds a majority stake (reported at 72% following Next’s 2023 acquisition of Warburg Pincus’s interest) and whose websites and distribution are run on Next’s Total Platform - operates a dedicated Israel (“il”) website.910 These are commercial retail activities; no defence, security, or logistics function of Next plc or Reiss in Israel was identified in any reviewed source.

Corporate Policy Response

No public statement, policy change, contract termination, or end-use-monitoring commitment by Next plc in response to civil-society pressure regarding a defence supply relationship with Israel was identified, consistent with the absence of any such relationship in the record.1

End Notes

Footnotes

  1. https://www.nextplc.co.uk/investors/results-and-reports ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  2. https://www.sibat.mod.gov.il/en ↩ ↩2

  3. https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/6347 ↩ ↩2

  4. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/export-control-licensing-management-information-for-israel/israel-export-control-licensing-data-28-february-2026 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/un-human-rights-office-updates-database-businesses-involved-israeli ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. https://israelproducts.cloud/does-delta-galil-support-israel/ ↩ ↩2

  7. https://www.timesofisrael.com/fight-couture-idf-orders-sweat-wicking-flame-retardant-garb/ ↩ ↩2

  8. https://deltagalil.com/company/segments/default.aspx ↩

  9. https://www.nextplc.co.uk/~/media/Files/N/Next-PLC-V2/documents/press-releaes/2021/10-03-2021-next-plc-acquisition-of-an-interest-in-reiss.pdf ↩ ↩2

  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiss_(brand) ↩ ↩2

  11. https://boycott.thewitness.news/target/next ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. https://www.boykotmarket.com/en/brand/next-plc/ ↩ ↩2

  13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Wolfson ↩

  14. https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/238043/full-print ↩

  15. https://bhuk.org/about/supporters ↩ ↩2

  16. https://www.beithalochem.ca/news/israel-defence-ministry-officially-recognizes-481-new-disabled-veterans ↩

  17. https://www.wfct.org/grants-in-israel/ ↩

  18. https://masjidalaqsa.com/boycott/next-plc-israel-bds ↩

  19. https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/374714/uks-next-chain-has-said-no-to-opening-stores-in-israel.html ↩