The prince of Liberty

By This Is Money
Updated: 14:10 BST, 12 January 2005

?

OPEN a newspaper, turn on the 無線で通信する or TV and you could be forgiven for assuming that 小売ing is doomed, that our proud nation of shopkeepers is no more, 取って代わるd by a collection of 匿名の／不明の spivs selling anything and everything from 倉庫／問屋s in God-knows-where over the internet.

Tesco and Asda 力／強力にする on because we always need to eat (and drink) and because of anything else they can lay their 手渡すs on and make a quick buck from. As for the 残り／休憩（する）, they're finished. Even the mighty 示すs & Spencer has had its day, consigned to looking as desperate as the 残り／休憩（する） with 50%-off posters adorning its windows, its new 長，指導者 (n)役員／(a)執行力のある 軍隊d to make excuses like there's no tomorrow (and in his 事例／患者, there soon might not be). Everywhere on the High Street there is despondency.

It's terrible: the worst Christmas for 10 years, 割引ing galore, piles of unsold 在庫／株. It makes you want to weep. What stuff and nonsense. Pierce the gloom and there are beacons of light, companies where the mood is buoyant and the 未来 rosy. We've seen healthy like-for-like 増加するs, for instance, from Matalan, Majestic and Liberty.

What is happening, in a nutshell, is this: the High Street is polarising, with 井戸／弁護士席-managed designer and fashion goods at one end and 井戸／弁護士席-managed 割引 retailers at the other. 公式文書，認める the words '井戸／弁護士席-managed'. Such is the level of 競争, there is no place for dross any more. Anybody caught in the middle, who 欠如（する）s distinction and value for money, is dead. The 連合させるd 軍隊s of Tesco, the internet and your smarter 隣人s on the street will have you for breakfast.

Even for those seemingly 長，率いるing for oblivion, however, all is not lost. A good 経営者／支配人 and a （疑いを）晴らす 見通し can still pull you through. Take Liberty. Two years ago, the Regent Street 蓄える／店 was on the conveyor belt 示すd for pizzerias and burger 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s, another mock-Tudor facade hiding a 巨大（な） restaurant behind.

That 運命／宿命, 苦しむd by so many 蓄える／店s up and 負かす／撃墜する the land, appeared to be only a 事柄 of time for Liberty. It was losing money, the stately 前提s were cramped and poky in comparison with the 改造するd and re-energised Selfridges. In short, there was no 推論する／理由 to go there.

Roll 今後 and Liberty is still losing money but it's no longer in 危機. No longer, touch the polished 支持を得ようと努めるd of the beams made from the 木材／素質s of H MS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan (yes, truly) is it in trouble, in fact. After a period of boardroom comings and goings, the 130-year-old 蓄える／店 really does seem to have turned a corner.

For that, it - and we, the 消費者 who, 推定では, don't want all our shops to look the same and would like them to stay as shops - have to thank Iain Renwick, now just 完全にするd his second year as Liberty's 長，指導者 (n)役員／(a)執行力のある.

It's no coincidence though that Liberty, now part of 小売 蓄える／店s, the 代案／選択肢 投資 Market-名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）d company controlled by 所有物／資産／財産 group Marylebone Warwick Balfour, is enjoying a period of 安定.

After a １０年間 of in-fighting and squabbling, the 親族s of 創立者 Arthur Liberty sold out to 小売 蓄える／店s in 2001. Renwick took over when the 蓄える／店's then 長，指導者, Fiona Harrison, retired through illness.

His 使節団 has been to instil the pride 支援する in Liberty or, to put it his way, he has 始める，決める out to '埋め立てる Liberty's birthright'. Not for nothing did Arthur, all those years ago, create a 蓄える／店 that reeked of 信用／信任 and chutzpah. It was a 寺 to the Arts and （手先の）技術s movement, to pragmatism and beauty - a shop that sold fabric and objets in gorgeous but simple surroundings of 支持を得ようと努めるd and glass.

When they 始める，決める out to find a 後継者 to Harrison, Liberty's owners 避けるd plumping for yet another retailer. They 手配中の，お尋ね者 someone who knew about 小売ing but also （機の）カム from a brand 開発 background.

As a result, Renwick's 任命 to what was still, にもかかわらず the problems, regarded as a plum 地位，任命する in London 小売ing raised eyebrows. He was a Scot, in his 早期に forties, who had worked everywhere - MTV, Storehouse and smart West End design 機関 Imagination - but nowhere in department 蓄える／店 条件. He hadn't done stints at Harvey Nicks or Selfridges. He had been a 訓練生 at Harrods, after 卒業生（する）ing with a degree in 法律 from Glasgow, but that hardly counted.

What he had, in 豊富, was ability, knowledge of branding and communications, 見通し and passion. It's this last that 示すs Renwick. In his 熟考する／考慮するd, understated choice of 着せる／賦与するs, his Scottish-burr, even his home in Chiswick, itself a 罰金 example of Arts and （手先の）技術s design, he appears to 具体的に表現する Liberty.

After Harrods, he went into advertising and PR, working for Rex Stewart, then Shandwick. Then he joined Storehouse, 扱うing the Habitat and 傷をいやす／和解させるs owner's PR, and working と一緒に Sir Terence Conran and Vittorio Radice. While the latter's 星／主役にする has slipped somewhat に引き続いて his luckless period at M&S, it is 平易な to forget what an 影響（力） he was, first at Habitat, then at Selfridges.

Radice 操るd Habitat's second coming, after the long 拒絶する／低下する from its heyday. Renwick was 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with selling the Radice gospel. He was at MTV when Radice worked wonders at Selfridges, and could only watch and admire.

He 強調する／ストレスs, though, that he has no 意向 of turning Liberty into a 見解／翻訳／版 of the Oxford Street colossus. Liberty is much smaller and besides, in his 注目する，もくろむs, it doesn't even qualify as a straight 競争相手. 'We are not a department 蓄える／店. We are an emporium,' he likes to 強調する／ストレス.

In a sense, he's turning the clock 支援する, to making Liberty how it was, a 蓄える／店 that people make special trips to, that sells special things - 着せる／賦与するs, fabrics, ornaments, 従犯者s - and is a fun place to walk 一連の会議、交渉／完成する.

He is also 意図 on re-creating the Liberty brand although by that, he 強調s, he does not mean the Liberty print. In the same way Burberry has moved away from the check, he would like to put distance between Liberty and the ubiquitous Tana Lawn design.

To that end, he has been 増加するing the number of own-brand goods and gifts. At 現在の, they account for 15% of sales and he ーするつもりであるs to 押し進める that 人物／姿／数字 to 25% in the next 18 months. '顧客s are willing to buy something they cannot readily see どこかよそで. That is why much of the middle-market, 集まり chains are having such a 堅い time,' he says.

He has scrapped the accoutrements of Seventies and Eighties 小売ing, of パネル盤s obscuring 木造の carvings and period windows, and 回復するd the shop to how it was: a thing of splendour. He wants to make Liberty international, selling own-label 従犯者s and 着せる／賦与するs around the world.

In a clever touch, which says much about his 主張 that Liberty is different and is a brand in its own 権利, he wants other upmarket department 蓄える／店s to 在庫／株 them 同様に.

It is all part of what he 述べるs as 'a very （疑いを）晴らす 見解（をとる）' of where the 蓄える／店 should go. As they pore over their own 最新の sales 人物／姿／数字s, many other retailers and their 投資家s would give anything for such clarity of 目的.

? Chris Blackhurst is the Evening 基準 City Editor