Lush

Mark Constantine, the 56-year-old co-founder of Lush, the privately-owned cosmetics store, is trying to sound reassuring. Occasionally running a hand through the mane of white hair that gives him the air of a trendy academic, dressed in a pink corduroy jacket and blue jeans that, frankly, make him resemble something that you’d find on one of his shelves, he trots out a series of encouraging trading statistics.

“We are looking at £35million of sales in the US this year”; “Like-for-like sales in the UK are only down 4 per cent”; “The company has added 98 new stores in this financial year, since June”; “The company still has a long-term aim of expanding to 1,000 outlets”; “We anticipate increasing our profits by 10 per cent this year”; “Total sales will be around £240million this financial year, up from £194million last year”; “Things are very good in Japan, lovely in Russia, Europe’s not too bad….”

But this barrage of positive news is punctuated occasionally with bleak remarks about how Lush is “on pause”; how the British retail scene is “a calamity”; how the US is “one of the trickiest markets in the world”; how “one British high street retail outlet in five will be empty by the end of the year”; and how he “wouldn’t put money” on his company’s long-term survival. There is a short pause after this last remark, as I digest it and ask if he really means what he says. “In the current climate, is anyone putting their money on anyone? No!” He laughs loudly, almost slipping off the sofa in the company’s head office in Carnaby Street, Central London, in the process. “This is going to go down in the textbooks as the second depression! And no one should be smug enough to think that they’re automatically going to survive.”

His happy staff – Lush is listed regularly in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For – won’t be encouraged by the comments. “What can you say, you know? We’re in a boat, we’re in a storm, we’re all rowing like buggery. How much longer have we got to keep rowing? Probably 18 months. I think next Christmas is far more worrying at the moment, and the following March.” He leans back. “But what do you think?”

What do I think? Well…

Read atTimes Online