HIGH-street chain Debenhams is celebrating record full-year profits.

But the firm, which has a department store in Worcester's High Street, has seen sales growth slow in recent weeks.

Strong sales across the retailer's 97 stores pushed pre-tax profits to £146.1m in the year to September 1, 13 per cent ahead of the previous 12 months.

Chief executive Belinda Earl said Debenhams' range of exclusive and designer clothing brands meant the chain had taken market share from its rivals.

Downturn

But while total sales in the year rose 15 per cent to £1.6billion, with like-for-like growth of 8 per cent, Ms Earl said there had since been a downturn.

Like-for-like growth since the start of the current financial year had slowed to 3.4 per cent, with a "disappointing" past two weeks.

Ms Earl said Debenhams had not taken its sale prices down by as much as usual but the drop could reflect a fall in consumer confidence.

"We're in a strong position with limited exposure to tourism and we're well spread geographically," she added.

"We're confident that our strategy is robust and flexible enough to allow us to outperform the market."