Model railways, sugar and clothes are among the products sold by a number of top-flight and second tier companies reporting next week.

Northern Foods, which makes Dalepak frozen foods and Goodfella's pizzas, has been caught in the crossfire of a supermarket price war over the past year and moves by Marks & Spencer to wring savings from its suppliers.

Jeremy Batstone, an analyst at Charles Stanley, was downbeat about its chances of increasing margins to 8.4 per cent by 2007. He said: "Given the extent to which competitors have been unable to retain any savings at all, it is hard to see where earnings progression is likely to come from."

Mr Batstone is anticipating pre-tax profits of £77.9m - up from £75.4m a year earlier.

Speciality chemicals company Johnson Matthey - a leading manufacturer of autocatalysts and pollution control systems - should post an improvement in annual profits on Thursday, despite the impact of a weak dollar.

Mr Batstone is looking for profits of £200m for the 12 months to March 31, compared with £195.7m a year earlier.

Among factors likely to boost prospects is Johnson's work in the area of diesel particulate filters, which should benefit from a tightening in EU emission standards.

Analysts are upgrading their recommendations to investors on model railways group Hornby ahead of its annual results on Friday.

Altium Securities said consumer spending concerns and a profits warning from rival hobby group Games Workshop had affected Hornby, although Games Workshop's difficulties were related to its own business and were not really relevant.

Altium said the results were likely to meet expectations and is forecasting Hornby to report annual adjusted pre-tax profits of £7.6m against £6.5m last time.

Broker Charles Stanley is advising shareholders to reduce their holding in sugar producer Tate and Lyle, which reports finals on Thursday.

Stanley believes Tate will turn in annual pre-tax profits of £242m against £224m last year.