Timothy Melgund

And anyway, when you're owned by private equity, you're always for sale.

Retail businesses are inherently unstable.

You have to build up a credible brand with a credible offer that can take your customers with you.

But if you get it wrong, if you get it wrong one season, particularly in a fashion-driven business like ours was, they will tip off.

And when they talk about 150 million, I mean, there's no way you were ever going to get that.

We got a very good offer, which would have been a very good return for the investor.

Anyway, they decided not to take it.

It was entirely their right to do.

And then, of course, you're stuck because what do you do with the business then?

You've got a business which is performing well.

You've got a management team which has delivered.

But you've got to make a change because otherwise you can't go back to the market to try to sell it again for years.

So they decided to change the management team.

I think you're right.

I mean, I think what had happened was that the failure to sell, which had been, I mean, going through a sale process is very traumatic for the entire business, let alone for the management team that's trying to drive it.

And although we really tried to keep our eye on the ball, you always get a bit of a flicker.

I mean, everybody was investing more in e-commerce, and we had our own website, but we also sold through Amazon and various other businesses.

But our product wasn't ideal for that, and we didn't get the level of traction that people were expecting.

Right.

But it was then in 2018 the management team was changed.