Let’s celebrate bankrupts who bounce back, says retail guru
MIKE Greene, who has acquired Morrisons’ convenience store business for £25million, believes he can expand the chain and has slammed criticism of his one-time bankruptcy.
Greene, who has appeared as a philanthropist in Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire programme, lost his home when his business failed 25 years ago. He acquired the 140 stores last week with Greybull Capital, safeguarding 2,300 jobs. He will reopen ten shuttered stores adding 200 staff.
But, speaking to The Mail on Sunday last week, he condemned Britain’s attitude towards business failures.
‘I was bankrupt 25 years ago in my 20s. I don’t try to hide from it. I talk about it to students, to businesses, it’s in my book.
‘I didn’t hurt anyone – but it hurt me severely, I lost my house. I delivered pizzas on the back of a moped with my wife, who is still with me 25 years later, and I bounced back. I wish in the UK we could celebrate people who do that.
‘I made a mistake. But too much in this country we beat people for making a mistake rather than asking “What have you learnt?” – since then I’ve helped thousands of businesses.’
Greene, whose book is called Failure Breeds Success, has spent 20 years on the board of the Association of Convenience Stores and holds several other board roles. He made his fortune acquiring and then exiting retail advisory firm HIM.
Morrisons is being overhauled by chief executive David Potts after the departure of former boss Dalton Philips.
The convenience chain, which will be rebranded to My Local, was forecast by Morrisons to make a loss of £23million in the year to February. Greene said he expects it to be profitable within the first year.
‘Dalton had prepared a business that could get to 500 stores so there was a very expensive distribution set-up. Ours will be lean and appropriate to our size,’ he said. Looking ahead to the next three years he added: ‘We are open to growing store numbers – we could easily double it if it was just about numbers and we may.
‘But I don’t want to put a number on it at this point. I don’t want to set excessive targets and sink this network just to look good in front of the market. This doesn’t need to grow to be a lovely, profitable chain.’
He explained: ‘We just need to satisfy the needs of shoppers in a very tight catchment. In fact, 80 per cent of shoppers come from within a mile of the average convenience store and 59 per cent come from within a quarter of a mile of the store – 440 yards.’