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This is a tie up of very odd bed fellows indeed. The Tesco and Next brands are not aligned and the 'poor fit' will quickly show. Aside from the obvious considerstions of range and price architecture, the brand experiences of both partners are non complementary.

By comparison, Tesco F&F and Sainsbury's Tu have been successfully developed and integrated into their master brand propositions as clear and relevant additions which their consumers understand for what they are: fashion in a grocery store context.

I believe that Next have more pressing issues to address within their own 'sagging' retail estate before venturing out into such uncharted water with unnecessary experimentation in different formats and channels. I'm sure that most Next shareholders would view this as an untimely distraction to more pressing issues of "fixing the roof" elsewhere.

With this move Next are in danger of losing their prized 'golden eggs' within the more everyday fare within the aisles at Tesco. Likely this will be seen as an ill conceived move with further damaging consequences for the once 'leading' Next brand in time. I wouldn't bet on seeing many rolled out.