George Davies is one of those miracle workers. He is the man who launched Next, the George clothes range at Asda and, more recently, the Per Una brand at M&S.
For several years now, we have been told Mr Davies was essential to Marks. There are those who say Stuart Rose’s biggest achievement was hanging on to him, and, even more significantly, shaking little fingers with Davies in 2005 when the two men fell out.
But now, as if Mark’s problems weren’t bad enough, George Davies is going.
His daughter, a director in Per Una, is off, too.
But this is no disastrous loss of talent, this is a Marks and Spencer loss of talent.
“[Mr Davies] is 67. He is a multi-millionaire. It is business as usual. George has done a great job,” said Sir Stuart. He added: “I’ll eat my hat if he wants to go and launch another business.”
Let’s hope, for the sake of Sir Stuart’s health, that Marks do hats made of chocolate these days.
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