Harold Tillman: The best dressed man on the high street

Harold Tillman, a grandee of the high street and the immaculately dressed owner and chairman of Jaeger, the fashion retailer, adjusts his cufflinks as the photographer focuses his camera.

"We are all quite vain in this industry," he grins.

In his spotless pinstriped suits, Tillman makes everyone else feel scruffy by comparison.

"It's a knack of his," a colleague observes, "to be by far and away the smartest-dressed person in the room."

Not that many years ago, Jaeger was a stately British brand as predictable as rainy days in May. The designs were worn by ladies of a certain age who expected their clothes to last at least 20 years and didn't pay much attention to hemlines.

But these days the Home Counties are sizzling under a scorching spring sun, and Jaeger is hot stuff in the upper echelons of high-street fashion. The company, established in 1884, is growing rapidly and in 2007 is set to more than double its operating profit of £1.9m for the previous year.

Much of the credit for its transformation from struggling British warhorse to cutting-edge fashion house is down to the team put together under Tillman and his chief executive, Belinda Earl. Tillman acquired Jaeger in 2003 and appointed Earl, the former chief executive of the Debenhams chain, in September 2004.

In 2005 Jaeger continued its UK expansion and returned to the shelves of Harrods and Selfridges after a long absence. The company now has a total of 130 UK and European outlets.

"Principally, we are a retail business that dresses people who want to look smart and have quality," Tillman says. "Our 2007 figures are vastly improved. We could have driven the business harder and faster, but that would have been at the expense of the brand. We have been investing continuously in the infrastructure of the company, and now it will start to motor and profits will come through on a natural progression."

Additional revenues are coming from Jaeger Black, a luxury women's collection, and the development of accessory lines including handbags, shoes and sunglasses.

The company is continuing to look for a flagship location in New York and hopes to grow its presence in South Asia, Australia and Eastern Europe this year and next. But it is in the UK where Jaeger continues to make waves by bucking wider concerns about the state of the retail market.

"The high street is not tough," argues Tillman. "I am hearing that it is tough, but it's not. I just think that expectations of growth have been too high."

At 61, Tillman confesses to being an "ambassador" for Jaeger, and appears happy to let Earl run the business on a day-to-day level. In fact, for the owner of a business in the cut-and-thrust world of retailing and fashion, he has a remarkably mellow manner.

But he has 40 years of experience to fall back on.

Having grown up in Brixton, south London, he joined the Savile Row tailor Lincroft at the age of 19, and ended up taking the company public when he was still just 24, before selling out five years later and pocketing his first million.

As well as Jaeger, Tillman is a partner in BMB, a suits wholesaler that supplies Debenhams, Bhs and other chains. He also owns Allders, a large department store in Croydon, south London. "The demand for the [Allders] brand nationally is astonishing," he says. "We have been inundated with requests for more Allders and we are looking at possible sites."

While dismissing suggestions that he might be close to retirement, the fashion veteran is currently trying to ensure that the next generation of designers are looked after, courting the City's big banks to raise financing for the Fashion Enterprise Fund, an offshoot of the London College of Fashion. The fund is being set up to help budding designers create new businesses.

"There is a huge amount of interest in the fund," he says. "My involvement with the college is quite ... well, it brings a new area to one's life that is not all about making money. I want to help the colleges as much as I can."

With an estimated personal fortune of more than £210m and a regular position on the Sunday Times Rich List, Tillman is ideally placed to cast a protective financial wing over young designers.

"The quality coming through these colleges is superb," he says. "The disappointment is that we lose so much of the talent. One [reason for this is] because it's not really recognised by the clothing retailing business in the UK just how important design is and how much it touches our lives - that it's not just fashion, it's photography, graphic design, etc. We should stop these designers going overseas or becoming despondent when they can't find work."

But back on the high street, what does the future hold for Jaeger and Tillman?

Oft-repeated suggestions that he might sell out are quickly cast aside. "We are well financed at this present time," he says. "But there isn't a week that goes by when either Belinda or I don't get an approach. Private equity is looking at everything retail that moves. Of course, they have approached us. And trade partners have said, 'Would you be interested in talking to us?'

"We listen and maybe one day the right noise might be made. But for now we want to enjoy the benefits of what we have done."

Within three years, Tillman wants to be the owner of a truly international clothing empire. Jaeger is often compared with Burberry, another iconic British brand, but from what Tillman says, his company is more likely to follow a franchising and wholesale route that will make it more like Hugo Boss.

Regardless of business models, Tillman - who recently took up golf in preparation for a less hands-on role at Jaeger, before discovering he just couldn't get the hang of the sport - is confident that British fashion has a bright future ahead of it.

"London is very strong right now," he says, before adding that the recent rush by celebrities - notably Kate Moss, Madonna and Liz Hurley - to launch their own clothing ranges can only be a good thing for the wider industry. "It is creating more awareness in this country about fashion. That will place further importance on design.

"And if demand increases then employment in the industry increases."

Anyway, with the golf clubs gathering dust in a cupboard somewhere, Tillman will be keeping a watchful eye on London to ensure that it retains its place as one of the fashion capitals of the world.