The return of the Retail Rat Pack

 

They are the retail moguls who made their fortunes by knowing every nuance of their trade.

The return of the retail rat pack

Top billing: Store giants Waterstone, Hargreaves, Singh, Choo and Walker as they would be portrayed in the style of the Rat Pack

As the song says, they did it their way. So it is no surprise that as the High Street crawls towards a slow recovery, this Retail Rat Pack is making a collective return to the spotlight.

Owner-founders such as New Look's Tom Singh and Matalan's John Hargreaves have found it difficult to resist seizing the controls once more as they see their creations heading for the rocks.

And this weekend Tim Waterstone is locked in talks to buy back the book chain he founded almost 30 years ago.

In recent days, Waterstone and his Russian partner Alexander Mamut have made it clear to the book chain's owner, HMV, that any bid would be about £35m.

But that falls short of the £45m that HMV needs to continue a financial engineering at its main chain.

Waterstone, 71, has openly voiced his frustration with the direction and financial performance of the book store since he severed links a decade ago.

It has failed to keep pace with the rise of the internet and made only £2.8m last year on sales of £514m. Troubled owner HMV said group profits in the year to April more than halved.

Waterstone wants to use his decades of knowledge to steer the business through the turbulence and inspire Britain's book lovers once again. Stores would be redecorated and the obsession with cut-price bestsellers ended.

Oligarch Mamut also has a background in book retail, a love of the sector and a belief that an independent chain can be made to work.

However, sources said both Waterstone and Mamut were nervous because after four weeks of due diligence the total cost of restructuring remained uncertain. Estimates suggest that as many as 100 stores – about a third – may need to close.

Meanwhile, the billionaire founders of New Look and Matalan –Singh, 61, and Hargreaves, 67 – have also both turned their backs on the leisurely slide into luxurious retirement to return to the fray.

Both men tried to sell their businesses in 2010 after years of excellent performance. But sales have begun to slip.

By March, Singh had become affronted by the operation of the business, which he saw as increasingly uninspired and management school-led. He had also watched as rivals such as Primark and Marks & Spencer reported more respectable performances.

Chief executive Carl McPhail and human resources director Linda Owen paid the ultimate price.

Within days of assuming full control as interim executive chairman, Singh reinstated buying director Roger Wightman, a 21-year New Look veteran, while last month he tempted back the chain's former design director, Barbara Horspool, in an elevated role.

Horspool is regarded as one of the High Street's best fashion-buying executives, but had tendered her resignation from New Look to join Oasis in February.

One supplier told Financial Mail: 'If you have built a company from scratch, you know which levers and buttons to press to put your business back on the right track.

'Why would you watch someone else do it wrong when you can do it right in half the time?'

Monaco tax exile Hargreaves andhis family completed a £500m refinancing of the Matalan chain after pulling out of a £1.5bn sale of the business last year.

But the disruption it caused at the business he founded in 1985 combined with weak High Street spending was taking its toll. It is also understood that his visits to Britain were restricted.

Tax laws allow Hargreaves only an average of 90 days a year over any four-year period to visit the country and his head office in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

He had been forced to hold meetings in Dublin, but since the last tax year ended in April he has wasted no time.

The buying office in London, set up by Hargreaves' daughter Maxine in 2007, will now close and a chief executive, former Asda trading director Darren Blackhurst, has been drafted in to drive up sales.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Choo has been linked with a bid for the shoe empire he established and which is now enshrined as the must-have footwear by the TV series Sex In The City.

Malcolm Walker, currently climbing Mount Everest, has also made clear his plans to try to seize full control of the frozen food chain Iceland, which he founded, when he returns this summer.

Other retail veterans famous for turning round rather than creating businesses are also waiting on the sidelines – Allan Leighton, the man credited with reviving Asda in the Nineties with Archie Norman, Rob Templeman, who has made fortunes at Homebase and Debenhams, and his former partner John Lovering.

Times may be hard for the retail sector, but the Retail Rat Pack knows it is not yet time to face the final curtain.

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