The final bell is set to sound on a high-profile fight between retail giant Next and Dundee planners over the building of a new £4.3 million store.
The firm’s proposal for Scotland’s first combined home and garden format store at Kingsway West Retail Park was turned down by the city’s planning committee last year after they refused to lift a restriction on clothes and shoes sales at the site. The decision was immediately appealed.
Next chief executive Lord Wolfson was so incensed by the refusal recommendation that he offered to fly north to meet city development director Mike Galloway in person to discuss the situation.
The future of the proposed development is currently pending a decision by Scottish Government planning reporter Donald Harris.
The target date for the application decision to be made is now overdue, having passed on March 11.
Next yesterday said it remained hopeful that its plan for Kingsway West, which would create 85 new jobs but result in the closure of its store at Gallagher Retail Park, would ultimately get the green light.
“We are awaiting the decision of the planning inspector, which we hope will come soon,” the spokesman said.
The update came as the high street fashion chain toasted a “great year” as pre-tax profits in the 12 months to January 31 soared by 11.8% to £695m.
Total revenues in the period including sales from its retail, Directory and Next Brand divisions climbed by 5.4% to £3.74 billion.
The performance has put the company on course to overtake rivals Marks & Spencer for the first time. It came on the back of impressive Christmas trading, which helped full-year sales across its Next Directory catalogue and online division leap 12.4%, while in-store sales grew 1.7%.
The firm’s guidance for the current financial year is for pre-tax profits of between £730m and £770m.
“The year to January 2014 was a great year for Next,” chairman John Barton said.
“That performance gives us a solid platform for 2014. Our strategy remains the same, focused on our products, our profitability and returning cash to our shareholders.
“Notwithstanding the continued pressure on the UK consumer, we anticipate another year of growth.”
In his review, Lord Wolfson said the company intended to continue the growth of its Home business.
“We continue to look for opportunities to profitably increase UK selling space,” he said. “For the coming year we expect to add 360,000ft2 . We expected 113,000ft2 of this to come from three large Home format out-of-town stores.”
Shares in Next closed the day up 150p at 6,730p.