Gerald Ratner is a British household name. In the early 00s, one of his fellow jewellers did market research on brand recognition and found that Ratners was still (over 10 years after it went under and despite the adverse publicity), the most recognised name in jewellery. Even today, Ratner’s gaffe is still famous in the British Retail industry as an example of the value of branding and image over quality. Such gaffes are now often referred to as Doing a Ratner. His story of Riches-to-Rags disaster at his very own hands fascinates and intrigues. It will be an inspiration to many who have experienced rejection, loss and humiliation. Gerald Ratner has come full-circle and is enjoying success second time around. He is in the press and media more often now for being successful than for self-sabotaging his own business. A musical documentary and TV series are testimony to that. Rough Draft Outline: Geralds story, in his own words, (biography style) in three main acts: The Ratners Years: Geralds early London family life where he left school with no qualifications to run the shop with his father in Richmond. Eventually they built the business to 100 shops throughout the 60s s but Gerald was instrumental in modernizing the business and gave the chain a whole new look in the 1980s: accessible, affordable and profitable. He rode the 80s boom and took the family business to a new level, buying-out H Samuel, Ernst s largest High St jeweler with over 50% of the UK market. 1990 saw the recessionary hangover at the end of the 80s party with all retailers struggling. Geralds much-publicized speech to the Institute of Directors in 1991 of course spelled disaster for him and the company. This will be covered in full, including the immediate aftermath where he struggled to crisis-manage the situation which, in his words, was like re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The Wilderness Years: After 18 months of failed damage limitation attempts, Gerald was finally fired from his own company by the Exec Chairman he had employed. He was hung out to dry by the Press not only the tabloids, but respectable broadsheet and business press joined in the condemnation. He lost everything and was reduced to staying-in watching Countdown in the afternoons, depressed, ostracised and bewildered. He attempted to find work with 50 different companies, all of whom rejected him outright. He tried to buy a site to start a health club in Henley but no bank would back him as he had no covenant. That is until he devised an ingenious way of raising some capital. The Comeback: Gerald eventually bought and developed the health club then sold it 3 years later for £3.9m. This was the start of his comeback. He then started his online jewelry business after a fellow jeweler did some market research showing Ratners was still, over 10 years after the event, the most publicly-recognized name in jewelry retailing. However, he was blocked from using his own name by his old company and had to settle for GeraldOnline which today is turning over some £25m and is ready to go public. But its High St jewelry retailing that is in Geralds blood and he wont rest until he buys back the company that threw him out almost 15 years ago. His first attempt has been turned-down but that is by no means the end of the story
Book Details:
- Author: Gerald Ratner
- ISBN: 9781841128122
- Year Published: 2008
- Pages: 268
- BISAC: BIO003000, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIO/Business
About the Book and Topic:
Gerald Ratner is a British household name. In the early 00s, one of his fellow jewellers did market research on brand recognition and found that Ratners was still (over 10 years after it went under and despite the adverse publicity), the most recognised name in jewellery. Even today, Ratner’s gaffe is still famous in the British Retail industry as an example of the value of branding and image over quality. Such gaffes are now often referred to as Doing a Ratner. His story of Riches-to-Rags disaster at his very own hands fascinates and intrigues. It will be an inspiration to many who have experienced rejection, loss and humiliation. Gerald Ratner has come full-circle and is enjoying success second time around. He is in the press and media more often now for being successful than for self-sabotaging his own business. A musical documentary and TV series are testimony to that. Rough Draft Outline: Geralds story, in his own words, (biography style) in three main acts: The Ratners Years: Geralds early London family life where he left school with no qualifications to run the shop with his father in Richmond. Eventually they built the business to 100 shops throughout the 60s s but Gerald was instrumental in modernizing the business and gave the chain a whole new look in the 1980s: accessible, affordable and profitable. He rode the 80s boom and took the family business to a new level, buying-out H Samuel, Ernst s largest High St jeweler with over 50% of the UK market. 1990 saw the recessionary hangover at the end of the 80s party with all retailers struggling. Geralds much-publicized speech to the Institute of Directors in 1991 of course spelled disaster for him and the company. This will be covered in full, including the immediate aftermath where he struggled to crisis-manage the situation which, in his words, was like re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The Wilderness Years: After 18 months of failed damage limitation attempts, Gerald was finally fired from his own company by the Exec Chairman he had employed. He was hung out to dry by the Press not only the tabloids, but respectable broadsheet and business press joined in the condemnation. He lost everything and was reduced to staying-in watching Countdown in the afternoons, depressed, ostracised and bewildered. He attempted to find work with 50 different companies, all of whom rejected him outright. He tried to buy a site to start a health club in Henley but no bank would back him as he had no covenant. That is until he devised an ingenious way of raising some capital. The Comeback: Gerald eventually bought and developed the health club then sold it 3 years later for £3.9m. This was the start of his comeback. He then started his online jewelry business after a fellow jeweler did some market research showing Ratners was still, over 10 years after the event, the most publicly-recognized name in jewelry retailing. However, he was blocked from using his own name by his old company and had to settle for GeraldOnline which today is turning over some £25m and is ready to go public. But its High St jewelry retailing that is in Geralds blood and he wont rest until he buys back the company that threw him out almost 15 years ago. His first attempt has been turned-down but that is by no means the end of the story
Finally, the real story behind the gaffe of 80s retail giant, Gerald Ratner, where in an infamous speech to the Institute of Directors in 1991, he described a decanter and glasses set sold by Samuels as total crap, words that have haunted him ever since and are now held up as an object lesson in how not to handle PR! He compounded this by going on to remark that some of the earrings were “cheaper than an M perfect timing for the book and a Channel 4 series, Doing a Ratner where Gerald helps companies turn-around PR disasters is awaiting confirmation. Gerald has already completed a pilot programme with Celador. He recently received press coverage after coming No 1 in a list of Bananaskins: The Secrets of the Slips , (Bene Factum Publishing, Sept 2006, £9.99), where he beat 200 famous gaffes like The Trojan Horse, Paris Hiltons sex video, Prince Harrys Nazi party costume, Watergate and even Pearl Harbour to be the No 1 Bananaskin of all time! After a much-publicized fall-from-grace, Gerald Ratner bounced back in 1997 with a health club he bought in Henley-on-Thames and sold for £3.9m; then in 2003 with online jewellery retailer, Geraldonline.com, which is currently turning-over sales of £25m and is on the verge of going public. He is now poised to push forward his £350m bid for Signet’s UK outlets H Samuel and Ernest Jones. Hes now on the business speaking circuit and describes his talks as like going to the psychiatrist.
About the Author
Gerald Ratner joined the family business in 1966 and built up an extremely successful chain of jewellers during the 80s, of which he was Chief Exec. In 1991 he made an infamous speech to a private audience at the IoD which was instantly seized upon by the media. He was eventually sacked 18 months later, and in 1994 the Ratner name was expunged from the company, renamed The Signet Group. For four years he worked as a general business consultant, before setting up a health club in Henley. He sold it for £3.9m in 2001, when one of the club’s members, Goldsmiths the Jewellers head, Jurek Piasecki, encouraged him to go back into the jewellery trade. Subsequently Ratner set up an online jewellery business, GeraldOnline. In August 2006, press speculation has noted that Ratner is interested in acquiring the UK business of Signet Group plc the re-named Ratner’s group. He is a married father of four and a fitness fanatic, cycling around 20 miles per day.