Endearing Eccentricity

Sorry for lack of posts this week, been a bit under the cosh here and it’s been a very busy week out and about in the market. Yesterday was bookended by the latest of the Textile Industry Childrens’ Trust breakfasts which I chair, where the audience of 60-odd included Stuart Rose, Andy Street, Joseph Wan and Kate Bostock. As well as hearing from an amazingly brave 14 year old beneficiary of the charity’s very fine work, we were due to have a debate with ecommerce gurus Brian McBride, who heads Amazon in the UK, and Nick Robertson, CEO of Asos.

As it turned out Brian got stuck in traffic and couldn’t make it, but it wasn’t a problem as Nick’s a really interesting guy and very open so we more than managed to fill the time. I couldn’t help but notice a few of the bricks and mortar retailers in the room looking more than a bit envious as Nick described Asos’s ability to turn on a sixpence and keep its cost base down through it’s absence of stores. I think Rose summed it up when he came over to Nick after we finished and said “Well done … you bastard.”

Other interesting events have been a the annual CBRE bash hosted by Malcolm Dalgleish at the V&A last night, where the property guys were more optimistic than I’d heard them for a long time, certainly when it came to the best towns and centres, and on Tuesday I was lucky enough to go to the dinner of a group called WACL, for women in the marketing world, where Boots owner Stefano Pessina was speaking. Despite not being women, chubby grocer Mark Price and Boots retail CEO Alex Gourlay were also there too, as were old friends of Retail Week Helena Packshaw, Lesley Exley and Barry Stevenson.

Not surprisingly as English is about his eighth language, Pessina’s not a natural public speaker, but his speech on leadership included some interesting nuggets and more humour than I’d heard from him before. He comes across a bit like a kindly grandfather and bit like a Bond villain who should have a cat on his lap, but he has a razor sharp mind and is going to be around for years yet. I had a good chat with him afterwards and he kept repeating the mantra “double digit-growth”, which he has a relentless focus on, and I strongly suspect Boots results which are published next week will be outstanding.

The dinner was at the Carlton Tower in Knightsbridge so I popped in to Harrods first to make sure that nothing dramatic had changed since my last visit before I wrote my leader. The thing any serious retail-watcher should do in Harrods is start at the top, because what doesn’t get noticed is how good many of its departments are, despite the fact that the building - with its low ceilings and endless succession of rooms - doesn’t help. The toy department, for example, is really well merchandised with great staff and is a far better experience than Hamleys.

In fashion it has developed real authority and the quality of the brands and the visual merchandising is excellent. But, in Al Fayed’s image, it is still a weird place. On one floor you walk straight out of the pet department, complete with live cats, dogs and hamsters, into an area of fashion concessions like Kurt Geiger and Arrogant Cat. The Waterstones concession is linked to the Vodafone one by a room of fine stones. And as for the always-deserted Harrods 102 store across the road, what’s that all about?

But that’s the nature of the business. Yes, the basement souvenir area is pretty tacky and the Diana and Dodi memorial looks like a school project by a kid. But all its eccntricity is quite endearing and I think while the £1.5bn price paid by the Qataris looks a lot of money, there is huge potential to grow the business and build on a phenomenal retail brand.