LONDON (Brand Republic) 鈥 George Davies, who founded Next and the George clothing brand for supermarket Asda, has surprised the retailer鈥檚 management and staff with his resignation.
Davies grew the George brand into a £600m-a-year clothing business and said he is leaving because it can survive without him. Although he stresses there has been no dispute, Davies said Asda鈥檚 recent takeover by US giant Wal-Mart had heralded 鈥渓ots of changes鈥.
He added that the departure of MP and former chairman Archie Norman soon after the takeover had a big effect on his decision.
鈥淎rchie was the one person who gave some belief to the group about its clothing,鈥 he said.
He has no job to go to, stressing, 鈥淚 am too passionate and bloody difficult. Big corporate bodies couldn鈥檛 deal with me.鈥
Wal-Mart said his departure would not stop the growth of the George brand and said it still plans to roll it out in Germany and the US.