The prospect of becoming plain old Mr Green again may be troubling ‘Are-you-staring-at-me’ Sir Philip Green less than we might imagine. Because compared to the other problems facing him, his knighthood is arguably pretty small beer.
Take the value of sterling: since the Brexit vote, the collapse in its fortunes has sent the currency tumbling in value by as much as 20 per cent. Then if you consider that almost everything sold in Sir Philip’s shops – be it Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins or Miss Selfridge – is imported from overseas (from places like Bangladesh, China or India), it doesn’t take long to realise that somewhere along the way a sizeable chunk has been gobbled out of his margin. And that’s got to hurt much more than anything Frank Field says.
Now Green will more than likely have a very clever solution of some sort in place to minimise any currency fluctuations – but ultimately, if the pound falls by 20 per cent and stays there, then he or his suppliers are going to be saddled with the loss. And
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