Next hits a profit milestone

British clothing retailer Next joined the one-billion-pound profit club yesterday, but while investors celebrate, they are also searching for worry about what will happen after the main man steps down.

- JAMES DAVEY

His stellar track record made Next one of only a handful of big British companies closely associated with their boss.

The 62-year-old, who joined Next in 1991 on the shop floor when his father, David, chaired the business, has helped steer it through Britain's many economic downturns, building a vast online business, handsomely rewarding investors via a 12-fold increase in the share price, and priming the group for a new era of international expansion.

But after such a long and successful tenure Mr Wolfson is by far the longest serving head of a FTSE 100 business -- investors are getting nervous about what will happen should the CEO, who personally writes Next's 60-page results statements, decide at some stage to step down.

"Simon's arguably the most successful CEO or strongest CEO in the FTSE 100 over the very long term. The flip side of that is a natural level of concern, if someone's going to leave, wasn't he in the business," said James Goldstone, fund manager at Invesco, a top five Next investor.

Several major investors in Next told Reuters their anxiety was compounded by a lack of shareholder and media engagement by Next executives below Mr Wolfson, making it difficult for them to assess the depth and level of leadership readiness, he said.

Mr Wolfson's stake of more than £29 million ($37 million) of Next shares last September even prompted some fears of a managed exit, and rumblings persist about potential political ambitions Mr Wolfson has sat as a Conservative Party peer in Britain's House of Lords since 2010.