Conran admits to storing up trouble

APPOINTING Michael Julien to be chief executive of Storehouse was the 'biggest mistake of my life', says Sir Terence Conran in today's Independent on Sunday, writes Roger Trapp.

Sir Terence, the restaurateur and designer who turned the Habitat furniture store chain into the Storehouse group through a series of mergers in the 1980s, says in 'My Biggest Mistake' on page 32 that Mr Julien is 'a good, decent and clever man'. But picking him for the position was a serious error because he 'just didn't turn out to be the person I thought he'd be'. Sir Terence says he was forced to leave Storehouse because 'it really became him or me'.

The idea was to have someone to concentrate on the financial and logistical side while Sir Terence played to his strengths of design and marketing. 'But I didn't realise how passionate he would be about being chief executive,' he says.

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