Halpern makes a return to retail trade: Former Burton head emerges in Spanish supermarkets

SIR RALPH HALPERN, one of the most colourful business figures of the 1980s, has relaunched his roller-coaster retailing career.

The former head of Burton, who left the menswear chain with a pounds 2m pay-off and an annual pension of pounds 456,000, emerged yesterday as one member of a Hong Kong-based consortium buying a loss-making Spanish supermarket chain.

A statement said that the consortium's newly formed company, Parafax, had been set up 'for the purpose of acquiring retail companies', suggesting that Digsa, a Spanish food retailer, could be the first of several purchases.

Since Sir Ralph resigned from Burton in November 1990 he has remained uncharacteristically out of the limelight, chairing the British Fashion Council and keeping observers guessing about a possible comeback.

Burton grew rapidly in the 1980s but Sir Ralph's departure coincided with a sharp fall in profits, a big write-down in the value of its properties and a cut in the dividend as the recession began to bite.

Other members of the consortium include Sir Michael Sandberg, former chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and Peter Carr, who ran Galerias Preciados, the Spanish store chain owned by the failed property group Mountleigh, which went into receivership last May.

As well as returning Sir Ralph to the shop floor, the acquisition of Digsa, which brings with it debts of pounds 33m and made a pre-tax loss in the 12 months to August 1992 of pounds 8.6m, gives a big boost to Ashley Group, its parent.

Parafax is paying pounds 20m, in four instalments over two years. Its shares ended yesterday 2p higher at 15p.