Bought for £1.2m: M&S lure the man who made Selfridges fashionable to style a new success

One of the rising stars of the retailing world, the flamboyant Italian Vittorio Radice, has been poached by Marks & Spencer to lead an assault on the UK's booming home furnishings market.

Mr Radice, 45, the chief executive of Selfridges ­ where he has been credited with transforming the group from an old-fashioned store on Oxford Street to one of the most fashionable retailers in the country ­ is being lured by a £1.2m "golden hello" from M&S.

His recruitment heralds M&S's decision to challenge big players such as Ikea in the fragmented £30bn-a-year home furnishings sector.

His willingness to become head of its home furnishings division from March underlines the recovery at M&S, whose sales and profits have been increasing after an implosion four years ago.

It also demonstrates the broad front on which M&S is advancing. In clothing, it recruited the former Next chief George Davies to run its Per Una fashion range. In foods, it hopes to open up to 150 branches of its Simply Food stores. Home furnishings has been stated as an area of growth opportunity for the company but progress has been slow.

At M&S, Mr Radice could make almost £1m a year with a base salary of £425,000, a bonus of up to 100 per cent of that, and a £120,000 pension contribution a year. Mr Radice said he was looking forward to creating a new vision of home furnishings at M&S. "We've learned how to change our clothes often depending on our mood and fashion and we need to do that for the home now. The days of the classic furniture store are numbered. My aim is to create a new way of looking at home furnishings, something that will make people want to rush home at night," he said.

He denied he had ambitions to be chief executive of M&S, though City analysts believe there may be a grander plan. One analyst said: "It's quite difficult to see why he would come from Selfridges unless there is a wider remit."

Mr Radice is one of the more colourful figures in retailing. Rarely seen wearing a tie, he speaks in heavily accented English and spends his spare time enjoying the arts and supporting Arsenal.

Born near Lake Como, in northern Italy, Mr Radice studied agriculture at university and turned his back on the family furniture business. After military service and a short spell working in Libya, he joined an American group, Associated Merchandising Corporation, as a buyer.

He came to prominence in this country when he was appointed managing director of Habitat in 1991 before becoming managing director of Selfridges in 1996. There, he championed the view that Selfridges was a leisure business whose competitors were not simply other department stores but other leisure activities includingthe cinema, pub and football. To this end he introduced a new style of "retail theatre" with themed promotions including Bollywood and "Tokyo Life". He is likely to take a similarly fresh view at M&S.

The full M&S furnishings range is only stocked in 25 of its stores and, with sales of less than £400m, the business accounts for only a small proportion of the total turnover. The company plans to test two stand-alone furnishings shops, the first one expected to open near the MetroCentre in Gateshead in 2004. Mr Radice's recruitment means the concept will almost certainly be rolled out nationwide.

Roger Holmes, the chief executive of M&S, said: "His appointment shows how serious we are about developing our home offer as part of our growth strategy."

M&S is not alone in targetting Britain's fast-growing furnishings market as a potential opportunity. When GUS paid £900m for Homebase last month it said it wanted to push the group more towards soft furnishings as opposed to straightforward DIY.

The appointment met with approval in retail circles. "It is good news for M&S and a bomb under Selfridges," said John Baillie, a retail analyst at the stockbroker SG Securities. "He's one of the best UK retailers around."

HIGH STREET HEROES

PHILIP GREEN
Despite leaving school at 16 without qualifications, the billionaire Philip Green has managed to become king of the high street as the owner of Bhs and Arcadia. With a reputation for flamboyance, Mr Green owns a £7m yacht to match his £8m hilltop villa in Monte Carlo, as well as paying himself £180m a year. His first job was selling imported shoes for a London wholesaler in 1968. Aged 21, he took over the family business and began buying and selling clothes. His first million came when, at 33, he was paid £3m for the Jean Jeanie boutique chain that he had bought just a year earlier for £65,000.

STUART ROSE
Stuart Rose was credited with turning round the Arcadia stores empire before it was taken over by Philip Green. Mr Rose, 53, made £25m from share options. It is the latest in a series of windfalls that have marked his 30-year career in retailing since he started as a M&S management trainee in 1972. His salary is believed to have reached £1.5m last year

ROSE MARIE BRAVO
The American chief executive of Burberry has transformed the firm, once based in Hackney, east London, into the must-have brand. Ms Bravo, 51, joined Burberry when it was floundering and managed to take its worth from £200m to £1.5bn.

BELINDA EARL
At the age of 40, the chief executive of Debenhams is among an elite batch of younger women making an increasing impact on business in Britain. She ranked eighth among the top 50 most powerful women in business, according to a survey this year. The former "Saturday girl" is renowned for her hands-on approach.