At a time when many regulars are looking forward to their post-Christmas break at the Sandy Lane hotel in Barbados, Arcadia owner Sir Philip Green is showing no sign of taking time off to do the packing.
Quite the reverse in fact. The group have revealed they are in talks to open flagship Top Shop stores in the two grand cities of the fashion world, Paris and Milan, and 100 Bhs stores are to start selling food, health and beauty products. Add to that the entertainment venture with Simon Cowell (surely Sir Simon before long) and it’s a wonder Sir Philip has time to even think about the Caribbean.
Sir Philip could teach all of us a thing or two about being an entrepreneur, and these projects illustrate that perfectly. Although the boulevards of Paris and the piazzas of Milan are littered with the corpses of British retailers who have tried and failed, Green is undaunted because his entrepreneurial spirit and experience have convinced him he is the one to make it work. I wouldn’t argue with him, since he has transformed Top Shop from a cheap alternative to fashion into fashion itself.
The Bhs move will put it in direct competition with Boots, another high street giant, the sort of battle Green relishes. The project with Simon Cowell, which is still highly secret but apparently will be revealed by the end of the year, shows that he’s also not afraid to branch out into other areas as long as he has the right partners (and in the world of TV entertainment there’s no better partner to pick than Cowell). Drinks at the Sandy Lane Monkey Bar with Michael Winner will just have to wait.
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