Department store business Selfridges notched up like-for-like growth of 5 per cent in December.

Full-year profits for the year to January 31 are expected to be “millions of pounds” ahead of the£84m achieved last year.

Chief executive Paul Kelly told the Sunday Times: “The roll call of the glads and the sads in retailing is being drawn up now and we have been a winner. 2007 was the best year ever, 2008 was a very mixed year, but we will make more money in the year to January 31 than last year, and that’s quite an achievement.”

He said: “Today you have to work smart and hard, today more than ever. That’s how I was brought up — you do a good honest day’s work. Maybe now that the market is changing, people will start to look again at their values.”

Kelly was confident that the opening of the Westfield shopping centre in White City would not pose any problems for Selfridges. He said: “Maybe it caused a bit of dilution, but people come to this end of town just to come to Selfridges. The world hasn’t ended. People are still going up and down our escalators with yellow bags.”