BIGGEST CORPORATE GAFFE EVER.. Mr C*@p ..30 years on
Institute of Directors to address 6,000 business leaders at the Royal Albert Hall on April 23, 1991.
It was a recognition, a mark of respect for his incredible achievements in building the Ratners empire.
But as a result of his speech that night, those achievements were soon to come crashing down. Yet it was not the first time he had joked about one of his products being “total crap”.
Four years earlier he had said the same to a Financial Times journalist touring an H Samuel warehouse in Birmingham, when she asked how he could sell a sherry decanter set with six glasses and a tray for £4.95. In his
Albert Hall speech, he quipped: “People say to me, ‘How can you sell this for such a low price?’ And I say, ‘Because it’s total crap’.”
It won loud laughs from the audience; next came his earrings gag. “People say, ‘That’s cheaper than a prawn sandwich from Marks & Spencer’,” he told them. “But I have to say the sandwich will probably last longer than the earrings.”
At a time of financial hardship, many customers did not see the funny side. They demanded their money back and sales fell. Gerald says: “We were in deep recession and people couldn’t pay their electricity bills, so a lot of people’s sense of humour had gone out of the window. I shouldn’t have said it.” He goes on: “I get it today. People say I had contempt for my customers, which I didn’t. Or that I said it behind their back, which is rubbish because it was at the Albert Hall and televised. Or that I said it about all my jewellery. In fact in that speech I said we sell high-quality jewellery.”
In a failed bid to contain the crisis, the firm ran adverts with celebrities endorsing its products. But it was not enough and Gerald was eventually fired from his own firm.
He says: “I lost all my money because the shares went to 2p. I lost my house, my children had to come out of school. I paid a very big price for that joke. I was watching Countdown in bed for seven years, I had given up.
“I read I was unemployable. I was suffering from depression.”
It was only when wife Moira threatened to kick him out that life began to change. He started a health club in Henley, Oxfordshire, with no money, sold it for almost £4million, and is now involved in an online jewellery business. Until the pandemic he was also giving speeches about his story, which he “enjoys more than running Ratners”. He also mentors others.
He says: “Someone asked if I regret what I’d said, and I said, ‘Of course I do’. But they said, ‘You love your life now, you appreciate things more, you cycle every day, you are healthier.’
“So I said, ‘I retract my comment’. There is a silver lining to everything.”