HIGH street clothes chain Next has posted a 12 per cent jump in profits.
However, the retailer remains "very cautious" on sales forecasts for the year despite its advantage over main rival Marks & Spencer. The surplus of £782.2 million comes after a year in which overall sales topped £4 billion for the first time with an increase of 7.2 per cent. Next, which last year beat the profits figure achieved by rival M&S, said it hopes to make as much as £835m in this financial year. It has pencilled in sales growth of between 1.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent in the present year. This is weaker than the range of 2.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent the company forecast in December.