His softly spoken management style was interpreted as weakness by some

His softly spoken management style was interpreted as weakness by some. Others said he was indecisive.It might be a reaction to the more “full-frontal” chief executives he encountered in his previous roles, such as Lord Sieff at Marks & Spencer and Lord John Sainsbury at the supermarket group. His style is certainly in stark contrast to the punchy, blokish approach of his predecessor, Mr Hodkinson. With his softly, softly delivery and careful choice of words Mr Sunnucks comes across as laid back.”I’m certainly not laid back,” he counters. “People are going to have questions about any chief executive and you have to prove yourself I’d always wanted to be a chief exec and run my own show. You never know when you are going to get your chance but when I did I knew what I had to do.”Asked about what had gone wrong at New Look he says: “Basically it was a company that rolled out small stores. I don’t think any thought had been given to what we did next when we’d saturated the market.”Asked how this was allowed to happen, Mr Sunnucks says the business, founded by Tom Singh in 1969, had problems adjusting to life in the public arena.

“Maybe the transition from a private company to a public one is not as easy as people think it is. Private companies tend to be very entrepreneurial, very hands on. Maybe as a public company we looked internally too much, looking at all the new things the business had to do as a plc. That was compounded by the rise if the new discounters, like Matalan,” he says.In the process New Look made a series of mistakes It expanded into France where the stores lost money It extended its range into homewares, another mistake.

Meanwhile the fashion content of the stores was becoming younger and younger, deterring older shoppers.Since becoming chief executive, Mr Sunnucks has moved quickly. He cut costs at New Look’s head office in Weymouth, ended the homewares experiment and struck a joint venture deal in France with a local retailer called Mim. New Look now owns half of the enlarged business, which is expected to make at least £4m this year.”I said – right we’ve got to get right back to basics of what we’re good at, selling fantastic clothing at fantastic prices to our core customers,” he says.With the UK stores, New Look’s “Project Heartland” idea is to relocate 160 shops to much larger sites, sometimes in secondary locations where the rents are lower. Mr Sunnucks explains: “The customers loved New Look but they were saying that firstly, the stores were too busy and secondly they looked a bit ropey for a company that was supposed to be in the fashion business.” The remaining 300 smaller stores are being given a makeover.On products, New Look introduced more “transitional” merchandise that could be stocked between seasons.