Next to reveal slide in sales

Next will this week unveil a fall in full-year profits of around 14pc following a drop-off in sales brought on by the credit crisis. Analysts expect the chain, which also owns the Directory catalogue business, to reveal that pre-tax profit for the year to January was £428m, down from £498.1m last year.

The company, which is run by chief executive Simon Wolfson, has already said that sales fell last year. At Christmas the retailer reported a like-for-like sales drop of 7pc, at the bottom of the -4pc to -7pc range that it had given the market. Observers expect sales to be -6pc in 2009 and -4pc in 2010.