Green is planning to link Arcadia and Bhs

RAG trade tycoon Philip Green is to merge his two High Street businesses Bhs and the Arcadia group of companies led by Topshop.

The consolidation of the companies is likely to lead to management job losses as the retailer aims to cut costs in the High Street slump.

Operationally, the merger could see Green transform some of his larger stores into a house of brands in which Bhs sits alongside Arcadia businesses, which also include Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge, Evans and Wallis. A trial store is reportedly being opened in Peterborough. Behind the scenes, the integration would see the elimination of overlapping functions in buying and logistics, in marketing and human resources and IT and in the finance function.

Green is also leading a bevy of top retail executives to Whitehall to lobby local government minister John Healey in an attempt to reverse the steep rises in local business rates due in April.