Sir Philip Green is to go it alone with the expansion of Topshop in America after being unable to find a suitable partner.

The billionaire entrepreneur has been looking for sites in New York for his flagship young fashion chain for several years. This year he opened in several Barney’s department stores in a burst of publicity around the launch of the model Kate Moss’s range for Topshop.

Sir Philip said he had yet to sign up locations for stores but would definitely work directly without a franchise or licensee after a series of discussions with potential partners.

The latest detail on Sir Philip’s widely trailed ambitions for America, a notoriously difficult market to crack, comes as the entrepreneur revealed plans to open at least six Bhs stores abroad over the next year and ten standalone Tammy stores – the teen label he bought from the French company Etam.

The expansion will include Bhs’s first store in India, which is due to open in Bombay in December, as well as stores in the Middle East and Romania. All 75 of Bhs’s international stores are run via franchisees.

Sir Philip is expanding abroad as British retailers face an uncertain year ahead. The billionaire, who controls a swath of the British high street, yesterday gave warning that times would be tough for retailers this Christmas, directly contradicting more bullish sentiments from Tesco’s Sir Terry Leahy the previous day.

Revealing that underlying sales had slipped 1.5 per cent at Bhs in the year to March 31 and remained level with the previous year over the summer, Sir Philip said he remained very cautious about the outlook. He said that underlying sales had risen by 3 per cent at Bhs in the past six weeks but it was too early to conclude, as Sir Terry had, that the summer’s slowdown was all about the weather.

“I’ve got seven or eight businesses on the high street so I’ve got a pretty good barometer. I think the last few weeks has been about a bit of pent-up demand – people want to wear something fresh and go shopping but trying to take a realistic read of that is difficult. I’m running stocks tightly and not getting carried away, not allowing repeat orders,” Sir Philip said.

He added: “You have to believe that with everything going on, while Christmas is Christmas and there’s always business, the next three to six months are going to be a bit tougher.”

Last year Bhs bounced back from an horrendous 2005 to lift operating profits by 3 per cent in the year to March 2007. Total sales rose 1.4 per cent and operating margins rose 0.1 percentage points.

In the previous year Bhs had been forced to cut prices in an attempt to stabilise the business after operating profits dived 54 per cent to £52.4 million, and underlying sales slumped by 7.1 per cent.

Sir Philip, who personally took control of the business, said the improvement was due to better merchandise ranges in both home and clothing.

He hired Kelly Hoppen, the interior designer, and Gordon Ramsay, the chef, to give celebrity endorsement to homewares, although the arrangement with Mr Ramsay has ceased.

In the year to March 31 strong cash flow and a 57 per cent cut in capital expenditure helped Bhs to pay down its debt by 46 per cent to £61.8 million.

The company is expected to be debt-free by the end of this financial year. Sir Philip and his family did not take a dividend from Bhs this year, his third payout holiday after a £40 million dividend in 2004. He said he had not decided whether to take dividends from Bhs in the current year.

Sir Philip said he was investing in the turnaround of Bhs, which he has said will cost at least £100 million to revive.

Since the end of March Sir Philip has spent more than £20 million on refurbishing 13 stores. A further six will be completed by the end of this month and a further 20 to 25 by the end of March. Sales at refurbished stores have increased by 12 per cent ahead of the rest of the chain.

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