M aybe Mike Ashley really would make the ideal owner of Mulberry. Who better than the Sports Direct founder to be presiding over a collection of “soft-yet-sturdy” Islington Bucket handbags: perfect, at just £995 a pop, for carrying around a couple of pints or, in extremis, for providing a luxury alternative to his puking in the pub fireplace routine. Yet, surely even Big Mike can spot the key problem here.
He may have taken a single trackie bottom store in Maidenhead and, since 1982, successfully transformed it into the more upmarket Frasers group, today valued at £3.7 billion. And, he may also be used to getting his own way, thanks to his 73 per cent stake in the business.
But, at Mulberry, the shoe is clearly on the other foot..
