Thank you for downloading this programme. In this edition of the bottom line, Evan Davis and guests

discussed different retail models. Which work best? Hello and welcome to the program. In the days

of centuries past when Britain was supposedly a nation of shopkeepers, it was also easy. You wanted

to be a shopkeeper, you set up shop, bought things and sold them.

Now though you will have noticed it's all a bit more professional. The independent shopkeepers have been displaced by chain stores and national or international brands. But behind those

fashires we see on our high streets and shopping malls lie some very different ways of running

a retail business. There are chains

that own their own stores. There are franchises and there are other models too. Each allows

some central control and also some autonomy for the local store. Which works best, where, tells us

a lot about how business or retail businesses work. So today we're going

to hear from three retailers, each with its own way of doing business, to compare and contrast.

And let's hear a little about each of my guests and their companies before we get into

the mechanics. First of all, Mark Constantine is founder and managing director of Lush,

a chain I'm sure most of you will have seen or possibly smelt.

Mark, for those who don't know the store, just describe what you do.

We make and sell cosmetics. People often think of us as a soap shop or a bath bomb shop, but we sell large amounts of hair care and things like that.

The most distinctive thing about Lush, I think most people will agree, is the aroma, isn't it?

Do you actually pump aroma into the store so that it wafs out into the...

Basically, many of the products are naked.

They don't have any covering on.

Now, obviously, if you make a scented product and it has no covering on, the scent escapes.

So you're smelling the future, really.

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