Gem king Ratner plans Net launch

By FIONA WALSH
Updated:

 

ELEVEN years after cracking what has since been dubbed the business world's most expensive joke, tarnished jewellery boss Gerald Ratner is returning to the City with an online venture. The entrepreneur is hoping to raise £4m to fund an online jewellery business, to be called simply Ratners-Online.

He said: 'I didn't want to use the Ratners name but research shows that it is still the best-known name in the jewellery business despite the fact there hasn't been a Ratners shop for years.'

He built his Ratners business into the world's biggest jewellery retailer in the 1980s with a whirlwind series of takeover deals and publicity stunts. But it all fell apart in April 1991 after he claimed during a speech to the Institute of Directors that the secret of the group's success was that some of its products were 'total crap'.

He had often made the same joke to business journalists. Indeed, he was fond of saying that the only difference between a pair of Ratners gold earrings and a Marks & Spencer prawn sandwich was that, while they cost the same, the prawn sandwich would last longer.

But he was unprepared for the storm that followed his speech and, in the end, it cost him his job as Ratners was forced to rename itself in an attempt to escape the backlash. The chain is now called Signet.

He has not been on the breadline since then, however, recently selling his health and fitness business for £3.7m. Now he wants another go at the jewellery trade and is hoping to carve out 'a significant share' of the £3.45bn-a-year market.

Ratners-Online will sell a range of jewellery and branded watches, focusing on the upper end of the mass market in the £40 to £300 range, offering discounts to High Street prices. He hopes to have the website up and running in September, in time for the Christmas rush. If all goes well, he hopes to float the company on the Alternative Investment Market.

Joining him in the new venture is Gary O'Brien, who was finance director of the old Ratners business. Also on the board, as a non-executive director, is Theo Paphitis, chairman of Millwall FC and Rymans stationery chain.

Ratner has also linked up with the privately- owned Goldsmiths Group, which is Britain's second largest jewellery business after Signet. Goldsmiths will provide the back-up for the online business, including warehousing and customer returns.

Ratner, 52, said he has grown up a lot in the past 10 years and is looking forward to a second chance. He explained: 'If you've been down and you can come back, you appreciate it a lot more. In the 1980s, I was so busy running around and trying to satisfy the City that I never sat back and appreciated it all. I hope it will be different this time.'

Shortly after his fall from grace, Ratner remarked: 'Someone said he had met comedians who wanted to be millionaires, but I must have been the only millionaire who wanted to be a comedian.' So will he be able to stop cracking one-liners? 'Well, it is difficult for me to resist jokes, even if I am the only one that really finds them funny. But I really will try.'

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