Next looks to offload Leicester head office

Next is looking to sell its Leicester headquarters and three major warehouses in Doncaster, according to reports.

Sky News says that Savills has been appointed to market its Desford Road, Enderby head office, while Acre will work on the big shed disposals.

All the transactions will be sale and leasebacks and will net Next tens of millions of pounds to boost its cash reserves during the coronavirus downturn.

Earlier this month Next sounded a warning about the coming months. It has worked out three scenarios in which sales could be down by as much as £1bn next year.

A statement said: “We have no experience of a similar crisis so there is no way of predicting the extent that the effect coronavirus will have on our Retail and Online sales. It is not yet clear how widespread the virus will be at any one time, how long the pandemic will last and what the medium to long term effect of this pandemic will be on consumer behaviour.”