Philip Green’s annus horribilis was a lesson in how not to manage public relations

The retail tycoon has many strengths and has achieved immense success – but he does not respond well to criticism, writes Chris Blackhurst

About now, Sir Philip Green would usually call, from his annual New Year holiday at Sandy Lane in Barbados. He would ring, to tell me what the weather was like over there, while I was suffering, in grey, wet, chilly London. Or how, he was enjoying some fine, French wine he’d taken specially while sitting with his feet dangling in the warm, balmy sea.

Not any more. So far, the phone has lain silent. Although after reading this, he might ring again, as he did in the summer, because I wrote something he did not agree with. Once again, I was treated to a volley of abuse, much of it too crude to repeat here.

It’s been a recurring theme of 2018, the PR demise of Sir Philip Green or “PG” as he is known throughout the sector and City. When the year began, he’d still not recovered from the fallout over the sale of BHS to someone who did not have the financial muscle to take on a business of that size, and Green’s subsequent refusal to plug the company’s pension deficit. He did cough up, eventually, and only after much protest.