Profits and Pitfalls
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2011
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The view from the top of business. Presented by Evan Davis, The Bottom Line cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies.
This week Evan asks his panel of top executives about the perils and the possibilities of running a fast-growing business. Many a company has spiralled out of control because of a failure to manage rapid growth - but what are the speed limits? They also chew over the role of the business lunch.
Evan is joined in the studio by Clive Schlee, chief executive of sandwich retail chain Pret A Manger; Peter Bamford, chairman of SuperGroup, the fashion retailer behind the SuperDry brand; Giles Andrews, founder and chief executive of Zopa, an online lending service.
Producer: Ben Crighton.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading the Bottom Line podcast. In this week's program, Evan Davis asks his panel about the perils and the possibilities of a hypergrowth business. How fast is too fast. |
| 0:13.6 | Hello and welcome to the bottom line. My guests today all come from businesses that have seen periods of rapid growth. That's considered good in business, but it can also be dangerous. |
| 0:23.8 | We'll talk today about the profits to be made and the perils of running a fast-growing business. |
| 0:29.6 | And we'll also talk about the business lunch, if there is such a thing. |
| 0:34.4 | But let's start by spending a few minutes, meeting each of my three guests. |
| 0:38.1 | And first up is Clive Schley, who's the chief executive of Pretta Manger, the retail sandwich maker. |
| 0:44.6 | Clive, we all know that Pret was for a while owned by McDonald's, or partially owned by McDonald's. |
| 0:50.5 | And you've tried to live that down ever since, haven't you? Because McDonald's has nothing to do with it anymore. |
| 1:10.9 | McDonald's came in, I think, in 2001 and held a minority stake in Pratt for seven years, and they sold out completely in 2008. And actually they didn't affect the business that much. They were a pretty silent shareholder. And now it's owned by a private equity company? Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll talk a great deal more about Pratt through the program. Also with us is Peter Bamford, who's the chairman of the Supergroup fashion retailer |
| 1:17.2 | behind the Super Dry brand. Peter also has experience on other boards, Vodafone and Renticill |
| 1:22.8 | included. But Peter, tell us a little more about Super Dry, the origins of the company. |
| 1:28.4 | It was founded by an entrepreneur called Julian Dunkerton, who is still the CEO today, |
| 1:35.9 | and he started off in the 1980s selling clothes off a market stall in Chelten, |
| 1:43.0 | moved on to selling clothes from retail shops under |
| 1:47.5 | the cult name, and in about 2003, 2004, got together with a designer, a guy called James Holder, |
| 1:59.0 | and together they invented what is now known as the Super Dry brand. |
| 2:05.9 | Now, of course, it has a sort of Japanese logo, Japanese look about it, doesn't it? |
| 2:09.6 | But people might assume it's a Japanese brand, but in fact it isn't at all. |
| 2:13.8 | There are ranges which have Japanese characters and a Japanese association. |
| 2:19.0 | There are ranges which have a strong vintage American connection. |
| 2:23.2 | And there are also ranges which have a motorsport connection. |
| 2:26.8 | It's purely one of a number of themes. |
... |
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