Fashion retailer Next has warned that its sales could fall by as much as £1.6 billion this year because of the impact of coronavirus.
In a trading statement issued this morning, the firm, which is headquartered at Enderby, in Leicestershire, also said it could end up posting a pre-tax loss of £150 million.
The firm said in the worst case scenario, its sales could by 40% if shoppers continue to be kept away from stores due to the coronavirus lockdown.
The company said that in the three days before non-essential shops closed under government instruction on March 23, in-store sales plummeted by 86%.
Next said that the majority of its customers had decided to stop shopping in-store before the order came to close them.
Overall, Next said store sales plunged 52% in the 13 weeks to April 25, its first quarter, while online sales were down 32%.
The retailer, which typically makes more than half of its sales online, was forced to temporarily shut its online operations on March 26.
After a three-week break, the firm started selling some items online, including children's clothes, following improved social distancing measures at its warehouses. It is now selling up to 70% of its range online.
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In the trading statement, the firm said: "It is hard to think of a time when the outlook for sales and profit has been more difficult to predict.
"A pandemic of this scale has simply not been experienced by a modern global economy.
"No amount of information about the past can accurately guide us in our deliberations on the future.
"Our job is not to guess exactly how things will pan out but to prepare the company for all outcomes that seem reasonably possible.
"So, the scenarios we set out are just that, scenarios, not guidance, not a forecast.
"Their purpose is to demonstrate how the business is likely to perform under different levels of stress, without seeking to predict which outcome is most likely.
"But these stress tests are more than an academic exercise. They serve to inform the decisions we take about the costs we should save, the cash we need to generate and investments we can afford to make.
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"The stress test also serves to demonstrate the financial stability of the group.
"Next's historic maintenance of healthy margins and high returns on capital have built a strong base from which to weather the storm: even in our worst case scenario of sales down 40% the group still is likely to deliver positive EBITDA and reduce year-end financial net debt.
"Much has changed since we last reported in March, it seems likely that much will change again in the next three months."