Reuters: Next expects tough year Fashion retailer Next (NXT.L: Quote, Profile, Research) revealed on Thursday a big slide in sales in the last few weeks and said the year ahead looked set to remain very tough as it reported modest profit growth for 2005. "We believe the competitive and economic environment will remain very challenging in the year ahead," said Chief Executive Simon Wolfson. "We are still budgeting on the basis of negative like-for-like retail sales for the year."