Store sales dive but Ted Baker buck trend

HIGH street chain Next are to hit shoppers with a second price hike after profits plunged.

The fashion and homeware giant yesterday said prices would rise at least four per cent on their autumn and winter ranges, on top of a four per cent increase earlier this year.

The blow for customers was blamed on the weak pound pushing up import costs.

It came as Next yesterday revealed their first annual fall in profits for eight years – down 3.8 per cent to £790million.

A 9.6 per cent rise in profits at their online and catalogue arm, Next Directory, couldn’t mask a near 16 per cent slump in earning from stores, where sales fell 2.9 per cent.

Next said it was hit by a triple whammy of “economic, cyclical and internal factors”.

The last of those included not ordering enough best-selling wardrobe staples.

Next chief executive Lord Wolfson admitted the firm took their eye off the ball as they focused on getting the latest trends into stores quickly.

Shoppers were warned they may see fewer core lines until the autumn as they iron out the problem.

The chain said people were spending less on clothes in favour of eating out and going to the cinema. SHOP sales fell at the fastest rate for nearly seven years in the three months to February.

The Office for National Statistics said sales jumped by 1.4 per cent last month alone, exceeding predictions. But it wasn’t enough to