Next chief executive Simon Wolfson’s pay slipped to £1.5m in the last year from £1.8m the previous year.

Wolfson received a basic salary of £697,000 in the year to April 2012 with a bonus of £753,000, the retailer’s annual report revealed. However, the Next boss was boosted by a £2.5m award of free shares under a scheme from 2009.

Chairman John Barton’s pay rose from £225,000 in 2010/11 to £250,000 in 2011/12. Group product director Christos Angelides saw his pay slip from £1m last year to £900,000 this year, including a £364,000 bonus.

Group finance director David Keens’ pay fell from £948,000 last year to £916,000 while group property Andrew Varley’s pay fell from £746,000 in 2011 to £674,000 in 2012.

Last week, Next reported a 4.3% sales across the group to £3.5bn for the year to January 28 despite underlying sales in existing retail stores dropping 1.4% to £2.19bn.

Operating profit rose by 5.6% to £598.7m and Next’s international sales increased by 13.4% to £76.3m.

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