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TWST: Looking at your industry sector, have you got figures for the size and the growth potential, and what are the key trends that department stores are facing today?

Mr. Jones: There used to be an expression that the department store is the dinosaur of the industry. We don't believe that is now the case. There has been a significant change in the culture, particularly of the way our children perceive department stores. 15 years ago young people would not wish to shop in the same places their parents frequented; that has definitely changed, and the reason for this change is because we in particular are now cultivating new, youthful brands. There is no longer the stigma of being seen to be shopping in the places where your parents used to shop. As a consequence, we, particularly, as a company - are certainly increasing our market share and our age spread appeal. We used to have more mature customers, and that still provides the bulk of our customer base, but we do sell toys, we do sell children's wear, and we certainly sell a lot of young, designer brands, and our very streetwise in terms of our merchandise selection. So we do cater for a very wide variety in terms of age, and of course in social background.

TWST: What's your market share; have you an estimate of that?

Mr. Jones: To be honest, we don't know. We don't know exactly how much people spend in the UK anyway on the type of products we sell. People do put estimates on - ours is relatively small. We have nine department stores, we're Midlands-based; we are not in the major, major city centres; but despite that we do achieve a fantastic return on our sales and have a very, very substantial profit record compared with our sector.

TWST: One of the issues facing companies which are perceived to be in the old economy is how they're going to position themselves in the new economy, in the digital economy, and in particular what impact Internet might have on their business.

Mr. Jones: One thing the Internet will bring, I think, is a greater price awareness on some durable products, whether it be CDs, radio and TV, motor cars, air travel, a non-durable product. In terms of apparel, we see the competitiveness not a great deal different from that that we've been experiencing with mail order and TV channel shopping. One thing you cannot replace is the social experience of shopping in a department store, the immediacy of transaction, the ease of purchase and the security of purchase, and of course the ease of returns. Now, we have seen our business over the last two years grow in terms of number of customers that we're satisfying. We see that continuing, because there is a growing tendency for people to be more conscious and requiring a greater degree of service attention, a sense of belonging, which the Internet and mail order do not provide. We do provide a very inexpensive social experience, a very low-cost entertainment. I'm not being defensive; we have a web site that's been going for three and a half years. We use the web site as a means of informing people.