Arcadia, the retail group owned by the family of billionaire Philip Green, posted a 3 per cent fall in annual profit, with strong performances from the Dorothy Perkins and Wallis brands offset by more losses at department store BHS.

The group, which also owns the Topshop, Topman, Burton, Miss Selfridge and Evans brands, said on Tuesday it made a profit before tax and one-off items of £143.1 million in the year ended August 30th, down from £148.1 million in 2012-13, on total sales up 1 per cent to £2.71 billion.

Echoing other British retailers, Mr Green said that in the first 10 weeks of Arcadia’s 2014-15 year sales at stores open over a year, including VAT sales tax, were down 1.2 per cent, affected by unseasonably mild and wet weather.

The group generated £316.8 million of cash during 2013-14 and ended the year with net cash of £205.1 million.

But for the ninth year running Mr Green did not pay a dividend. In 2005 he geared up the business to pay his Monaco-resident wife Christina, the ultimate owner of Arcadia, a £1.2 billion dividend.

Losses at BHS widened to £21.0 million in 2013-14 from £19.3 million the year before.

Mr Green, who bought BHS for £200 million in 2000, said turning round that business remained challenging, though a trial of three food stores within BHS had “traded favourably” so far.

The retailer purchased the rest of Arcadia for £850 million in 2002 and a decade ago he failed in a second attempt to buy Marks & Spencer, Britain’s biggest clothing retailer by sales value.

In 2012 he sold a 25 per cent stake in Topshop/Topman to US private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners for £350 million.

- Reuters