August 2007, 4 pages
Interview by: Alistair Craven
David Jones CBE is a former Chief Executive and Chairman of NEXT plc. His illustrious career has taken him through some of the most successful UK retail companies including Kays, Great Universal Stores, Grattan and NEXT.
He joined Kays Mail Order Company in October 1960 as a temporary clerk. He qualified as a Chartered Secretary and Certified Accountant by correspondence courses, and was appointed Finance Director of Kays at the age of 23.
In 1974 he was appointed Assistant Managing Director of Kays and in 1976 became Chief Executive of the British Mail Order Corporation Ltd – another mail order subsidiary company of Great Universal Stores Plc. In 1981 he was headhunted to become the Chief Executive of Grattan Plc – a long established but loss-making independent home shopping business based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Grattan’s profitability recovered sharply in the early 1980s and in 1986 it merged with NEXT Plc at a valuation of £330m. David became Chief Executive of NEXT Plc in 1988 after a well publicized boardroom coup which resulted in the dismissal of the founder of NEXT, George Davies.
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