By Matthew Cushen on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
It’s a long while since I was defined by a sector. These days I invest in businesses across all sectors. The only commonality being a compelling new insight, room in a market for a new proposition to grow (because the market is highly fragmented and/or high growth) and the potential to build a loved brand – which is as likely to be B2B as consumer.
But a long time ago I was defined as a retailer. Inevitable given a childhood growing up in a Post Office in sleepy Devon and skiving off school to man the shop when Mum & Dad had a rare holiday. From there I helped set up the first overseas Virgin Megastore (yes Virgin used to sell records – and cassette tapes!). Then looked after a big chunk of Woolworths, redesigned the John Lewis supply chain and helped set up a huge retail business in India – in one year we built 800 supermarkets and 50 hypermarkets. So reminiscing finds two retailers that no longer exist, one in the department store space that is having an existential crisis and one that is

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