A SUITABLY SPIRITED SENDOFF TO SIR STUART
WE’LL begin by heading over to the Royal Festival Hall for Marks and Sparks’ annual general meeting, where the usual fun and games were to be had.
Hundreds of ageing M&S veterans queued up for the speeches, stage antics and free food and drink, armed with piercing questions for Sir Stuart Rose and his successor, Dutchman Marc Bolland. One, who pointed out that she was dressed head to toe in M&S wares, complained about having to buy gingerbread men which had been “decapitated”. Later, another questioned the quality of the retailer’s socks, which have been unravelling and slipping down all over the shop.
“Go shopping and if you can’t find anything, come again with me next week,” soothed Sir Stuart, who’s had experience with such grievances in the past, Jeremy Paxman’s pants and all.
The real corker of the meeting, however, was when the famous clothing rail made its customary appearance, led on by M&S model Twiggy. After gushing tributes about Rose’s many attributes as a company boss and gentleman, Twiggy settled in to watch her hero perform his market trader routine.
“If you’re not the biggest, we can make you bigger,” roared Rose enthusiastically, holding up the retailer’s new bra range, which claims to make ladies look up to two full cup sizes larger than God intended.
Replied our Twiggy, a twinkle in her eye: “This man knows what he’s talking about…”
SPORTING GREAT
Grumblings are still rumbling around in the City over England’s dismal performance in the World Cup, with the favourite refrain being that if a business performed that badly at a crucial juncture, heads would roll.
Lucky for team manager Fabio Capello, then, that at least one City chap is willing to stick up for the FA’s decision to stick with him. Josh Lewsey, the former England and Wasps rugby back who is now a senior consultant for PwC, has no shortage of experience with tough sporting situations, but is convinced the problems lie deeper than Capello.
“It’s very easy to blame a specific individual but that’s like shifting deck chairs on the Titanic,” he told The Capitalist. “We haven’t won the World Cup since 1966 and the manager and the head of the FA chop and change. It’s right that the FA didn’t succumb to a knee jerk reaction – you’ve got to look deeper than the performance of the national team, both structurally and culturally.”
Sage stuff. In case the FA is wondering, Lewsey’s advice is to invest in youth training (well, it’s certainly worked for Germany), look at how money at the top level filters down and how the FA interacts with the Premiership on the issue of the top stars. Sounds easy when you say it like that, doesn’t it?
TROUBLE AND STRIFE
Red faces all round yesterday at Credit Suisse, just a few short weeks after the bank and a couple of its peers gave up the ghost on getting the Pru’s rights issue away.
More recently, Credit Suisse has been advising Fairfield Energy on its planned flotation, which – failing a small miracle – looks set to be given the chop this morning. So it’s a good job senior adviser Robert Mayhew is used to the City’s ups and downs – he is the son of Cazenove veteran David Mayhew, one of the central defendants in the Guinness share trading scandal of the late Eighties. After charges were dropped against him, Mayhew Snr managed to ascend to the very pinnacle of the financial advisory world, so his progeny shouldn’t let a piffling little IPO headache stand in the way of his ambition.
FOOT SORE
Cardew Group’s Jamie Milton has been on the blower to tell me of a harebrained stunt he’s doing at the end of the month. Milton, a former captain in the Army before he joined the world of PR, plans to walk 133 miles between Winchester and Canterbury cathedrals to raise money for Help for Heroes. Only, to make it more difficult, he’s doing the whole thing barefoot.
“I would like to pay tribute to the courage our soldiers demonstrate each day of their lives and to help raise the funds necessary to ensure that when they come home, they are not forgotten by the country they served,” says our man.
To help him along, go to www.justgiving.com/James-Milton.
FAST FOOD FIX
First a local curry house sustained Alistair Darling and co through the night in the middle of the financial crisis, when they were dreaming up the multibillion pound bank bailout, and now a pizza delivery boy saves the day on an M&A deal.
Rivington Street Holdings directors, led by chief executive and T1PS founder Tom Winnifrith, were in the Isle of Man on Tuesday evening to receive a document finalising the group’s acquisition of the financial markets division of Aim-listed Corero. Only when the document in question arrived, the gathered execs faced a crisis when it transpired that a witness signature was required to sanction the deal. Luckily, the Domino’s Pizza delivery scooter zoomed up right on time for its driver to step into the breach.
RACE DAY
Finally, good luck to all those taking part in today’s Standard Chartered Great City Race, who will be egged on by the bank’s European chief Richard Holmes, ex-Olympian Denise Lewis and Lord Mayor Nick Anstee.
I’m told a maximum field of 6,500 runners signed up from almost 400 firms.