Why Burberry's check may bounce

YOU sometimes wonder where people get their names from - Rose Marie Bravo is an example. Bravo is not the kind of family name that you see handed down over generations. You get the feeling it is the type of name you would give yourself if you were brought up in the great American dream and your career was focused on marketing and reaching targets.

Well, wherever the name came from, I am sure there will be shouts of Bravo! coming from the GUS boardroom if she pulls off the flotation of Burberry at anywhere near the £1.45bn price tag.

The company has experienced valleys and mountains in performance over the years. As part of the GUS group its last claim to fame was in the early 1980s when the distinctive beige raincoat with check lining captured the imagination of the young and wealthy. It was all the rage to be seen in one of these macs, complemented of course by a cashmere scarf using the same check pattern.

But like all fashionable things, when the whole world and its brother were seen out in it, it became very un-chic, in fact it got to a stage where you were considered a geek if you still wore it. A bit like men who wear flared trousers now.

The problems at the time were further compounded by the counterfeit market. As the sales drive was based on every article in the range being hallmarked with the famous check, it was quite easy for counterfeiters to copy the stuff. Copy handbags, ties and scarves were being sold from market stalls. For a layman looking from a distance it was hard to tell what was real and what was fake.

Having lived through this era, some of the old-timers on the GUS board must think their boat has come in. They have been sitting with a subsidiary going nowhere for the past 15 years or so, and suddenly someone is talking about floating it for £1.5bn. No wonder they will be screaming Bravo! Bravo!

The resurrection of the brand was masterminded by Bravo, a New Yorker weaned by Saks Fifth Avenue. Given the task of relaunching the range, she did what most fashion houses do, recruit the services of the young, rich and famous.

Posh and Becks, as well as Madonna, were seen out and about wearing the stuff. This started a bums' rush, as everyone who thought they were a star or celebrity wanted to jump on the bandwagon. There is no doubt about it, the marketing was good, it worked.

The range of products this time round is much more diverse and does not rely on one or two items as it did before. It is on the shelves of all the posh shops, not just in England but all over the world. But you can't get away from the fact that most of it relies heavily on the famous check.

Somehow you get the feeling that like most things in fashion this is simply another fad. Burberry is tied to its birthmark and has to include it on everything it makes, whereas others such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Gucci are free to adapt in style and colour every season. They mainly rely on their respective logos.

You know the writing is on the wall when you see the promo advert for the fly-on-the-wall Sky TV series Ibiza Uncovered. Drunken screaming skinheads on the run, one of them wearing a ripoff Burberry bandanna.

At a flea market or on the promenade of a seaside resort you see vendors offering an array of fake items in what looks like the famous check, some not even sold by Burberry. I would imagine the diehards and old warhorses at GUS are sweating at the moment. They are not daft, they have been around a long time and have seen fashion items come and go. The quicker they can get the float away the better. What surprises me is that they are selling only 25% of the company.

As for Bravo, she deserves every penny in bonus and shares of the rumoured £15m she will be paid. She has taken an ailing asset and turned it into a windfall for her bosses.

When the fund managers and analysts pour out of the City presentation meeting, depending on the venue, they may pick up an Evening Standard from one of the corner street vendors and be greeted by: 'All right guv, a bit nippy today, eh? Don't suppose I can interest you in one of these scarves?' I am not sure which banker is going to sponsor this float, all I can say is when the applications come back and the money rolls in, there may be a double meaning to the expression a bounced check.

Sir Alan Sugar has donated his fee to charity