After M&S ... the Green revolution

PHILIP Green bounded back on to the retail stage last week to a minute-long ovation from his loyal shop workers. Twelve pounds heavier after six weeks sailing around the Mediterranean on his £20m custom-built Benetti yacht, he looked relaxed, tanned and happy, his wife Tina at his side as he addressed 900 Dorothy Perkins managers at their rowdy annual shindig.

At first sight, there was not a hint of the bruising he took after his failed £12.5bn bid attempt for Marks & Spencer at the beginning of summer. But within minutes, he took a well-aimed kick at his adversary.

'There is a massive difference between public and private businesses,' he told his staff. 'Family-owned businesses give you the opportunity to show entrepreneurial flair. There is no protocol, no politics; you just get on with the job. It's all about commitment, loyalty and passion, and we've got that in abundance.'

Speaking later and exclusively to Financial Mail backstage, the billionaire retailer was his usual forthright self when asked how he now views his failed assault on M&S. If it has dented his confidence he did not let it show.

'We were treated contemptibly by a lot of very important people who were only looking after their own interests,' he says. 'I could have got that business really humming in three to five years. That's not going to happen now. It was our decision not to buy it. If we had wanted to overpay, we could have got it.'

There are certainly no outward signs that a summer at play in the Med has softened Green. Though he jokes that his 13-year-old daughter Chloe has complained that his excesses have led to a double chin, he does not dwell long on private matters.

'We have been the victim of our own success,' he said. 'We are now famous for buying companies and turning them around, but that can be a handicap . . . it's taken me 30 years to become an 'overnight' success.'

Green has already said he will have his revenge by getting his existing businesses, Bhs and Arcadia, the Burton-to-Top Shop group, to 'trade their socks off' in a head-to-head war of attrition on the High Street with M&S. Detractors suggest that this battle will be fought at the expense of suppliers, who will be squeezed to open the way for cut-throat competition between the two traders.

Indeed, every time Green has bought a High Street chain, rumours abound that suppliers are summoned and then made an offer they can't refuse to either slash their prices or lose his business.

In many ways, it is an image Green has done little or nothing to dispel.

He has never shirked publicity - his pavement dust-up with M&S boss Stuart Rose soon after he launched his bid is evidence - and he has always relished his public image as a tough talking wheeler-dealer.

Yet now that the gloves are off in what will be a monumental retail battle, he is keen to present a different side to the Green story.

'All this stuff about suppliers is total nonsense,' he says. 'It's a two-way street with supplier businesses and it's very disappointing to hear we are just costcutters.'

Green adds: 'I see it as efficiency, not screwing down my suppliers. Most of the suppliers that we started off with at Arcadia and Bhs are still with us, some in a bigger role and some with less.

'Yes, I can be tough, but I am reliable. I have never had a phone call from a supplier saying payment has been late.

'The key to it all is a long-term relationship. You hear about M&S pulling in suppliers and telling them to take six% off. That's nonsense. You have got to work with them.'

To illustrate the point, Green insisted that Financial Mail talked to his suppliers. A cynic might say that he put them forward, but they back Green with enthusiasm.

Jewellery supplier Alan Witzenfeld says: 'About 90% of my business goes through Arcadia and Bhs and has done since before he (Green) took over. Do I sleep at night? I sleep a lot better since Philip came along.'

Green is equally scathing about his competitors' use of consultants to assess the business. 'Waste of money,' he says.

Talking to suppliers and staff, the same word comes up again and again - accessibility. Green is always at the end of a phone. Sometimes he's blunt, but he always has an answer.

Indeed, his public relations aides had to wrestle his mobile phone away from him before the 'Dotty P' presentation last week.

According to one senior Burton executive, Green hates long e-mails or memos outlining meetings or actions taken. But he gives staff the flexibility to get on with the job.

'When I joined I have to admit I was nervous,' says one senior executive. 'I said to colleagues I'd give him three chances, but after the third time he shouted I'd leave.

'He hasn't shouted at me once yet. When a mistake is made, he wants to know how it happened, but then he moves on.'

Green says: 'The feeling that staff can call you is fundamental to success.

'It's all about communication and talking to everyone in the business. I try to make sure I answer all my calls within a day. If I am that bad, how come we have not lost one senior executive since I bought Arcadia?' Above all, Green knows about clothes. Within minutes of meeting him, you just know he's looked at your suit and worked out where it was made, how much it cost to make and how much you paid for it.

After months of headlines following Green's bitter battle for M&S, it is interesting to see him in action with his staff.

So much has been written about his tough talking, maverick style, you would be easily forgiven for expecting a cowering group of 'yes' women and men.

The Philip Green who strode into the Dorothy Perkins conference last week was quite unexpected. He clearly revelled in the adoration and applause, but also seemed eager to use the opportunity to spread the message.

In a barely concealed dig at Arcadia's previous management (Stuart Rose was chief executive of Arcadia when Green bought it for £850m in 2002) Green pronounced to the cheering shop workers: 'I know it wasn't the style of the previous management to turn up at these events ...'

He went on to heap praise and gifts of cash and even a brand new Mini to top staff.

Green is realistic about the battle ahead. The unseasonable weather has already made much of the High Street uncertain about autumn trading.

But he says defiantly: 'I've got nothing to prove, but I said we are going to trade our socks off and that is what we are going to do.'