Arcadia, the UK’s biggest fashion retailer, owned by Sir Philip Green, suffered a fall in profit as a strong performance from its Topshop and Topman brands failed to outweigh the impact of the consumer slowdown.

Pre-tax profit in the year to August 30 fell from £199.2m ($338.4m) to £188.9m on sales that slipped 0.6 per cent to £1.8bn. Like-for-like sales dropped 2.8 per cent, masking a “double digit” like-for-like sales improvement at Topman with a weaker showing from brands aimed at older customers, such as Wallis and Dorothy Perkins.