8/4/2019 Foyle on winning the war

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23January 2011

RIVIERA PEOPLE

www.rivieratimes.com

Foyle on winning the warThe Monaco resident talks to The Riviera Times about his fight to save a famous bookshopE

leven years ago,Christopher Foyle'saunt, Christina,called him to her

bedside to tell him that shewas making him a director ofthe family firm, the famousFoyles bookshop on CharingCross Road in London. Six-days later she died and hernephew found himself pre-

siding over a rapidly sinkingbusiness.

For Foyle, the appointment

came as a shock: after turninghis back on a university

education to work with hisaunt at the company, he hadgone on to resign ten-yearslater, fed up with his paltrysalary of 1,600 pounds a yearand frustrated by his aunt'srefusal to give him any

responsibility.He went on to build his

own successful aviation com-pany, Air Foyle. I had no ideathat I would return to thefamily business, he admits

when we meet in Monaco,where he now resides with hiswife Catherine. My aunt diedwhilst I was in Seoul on a

business trip, I was in themidst of all kinds of deals formy own company. I was pretty

busy at the time and suddenlyI had to decide what to doabout Foyles!"Eccentric and loss-makingThe shop was losing moneybut they had 4.5 millionpounds in the bank and no

debt. Although she had puthim in charge, his aunt hadnot left her share of the bus-iness to him, choosing insteadto leave her wealth to charity.

As director he had to choose

between selling, closing orturning the situation around.He chose the last option. Therest as they say is history.

Asked if he is happy withthe choice he made he laughs,as is his way, hearty and

natural, and tells me to ask his

wife. But, more seriously, hepoints out quickly that thingshave changed drastically forthe business over the last

decade and they are nowturning a profit for the firsttime in over 15 years. When Itook Foyles on it was nose-diving and it occurred to methat unless we did all theseobvious changes there would

be no choice but to close it,but it wasn't rocket science.

From the outset, Foylewanted to keep the feeling of

individuality, independenceand the enormous range of

titles for which the shop isfamous, but do away withsome of the more non-userfriendly practices.

For example, there was asystem that involved queuingup three separate times to

buy one book. You only got tothis stage if you had found thetitle you were looking for inthe first place, which was noteasy thanks to strange cate-gorisation. You were unlikely

to find a staff member who

could help because Christinafired most of them within 11and a half months so shewould not fall foul of employ-

ment law regarding dismissal.The result was that no oneknew what they were doing.

There was also no financialmanagement, only "three oldladies who hand-wrote theaccounts in ledgers. We un-covered frauds of around 20million pounds that had been

taking place for years.Ushering in a new era, Foyle

refurnished the shop andreorganised the stock. Heoffered staff a career structureand training and gave themresponsibility for their depart-

ment. He fired those stealingfrom the company, eventuallysuing them for commercialfraud in the high courts.

He hired a financial directorand in 2007 he brought inSam Husain as CEO, who has

done an impressive job of

acquiring new shops andimproving Foyles fortunes.

"We are doing rather well,especially next to some of our

competitors. Turnover hasbeen going up every monthfor the last three years; wewent into profit for the firsttime in god knows how longlast year, Foyle says beforeadding, "but still there are

many challenges."The E-book challengeHe points to the electronicbook as an example of how

booksellers must keep upwith a rapidly modernising

world. Foyles sell 100,000titles as e-books on theirwebsite and stock readingdevices like the Sony Reader.

As well as the commercialbenefits, there is no questionthat Foyle has been driven to

see the company through thedark times because of thefamilial links. "When mygrandfather started Foyleswith his brother in 1903 theyran it from their mother's

kitchen. They were the seventh

and eighth children in a largefamily and there was no roomfor them in their father'sbusiness so they went to join

the civil service but failed theentry exams. They put anadvert in a local paper to sell

their second-hand textbooksand there was such a bigresponse they thought therewas something in it so theybought a few more titles.

After a few months they

had a lock-up premises inPeckham and a little later theyopened their first shop. By1906 they had a store onCharing Cross Road, notwhere we are now but aboutsix doors north. In three years

they had a reputation as oneof London's largest educa-tional bookstores.

To this day, Foyles' flagship

Charing Cross store isrenowned for stocking "the

largest range of titles of anybookshop in Britain possibly

the world. For those who wantto search for books physically[not on the internet] on anygiven subject, Foyles stands

out," its owner says proudly.The wide range of subject

matter reflects Foyles' owninsatiable appetite for justabout everything, from arch-aeology to rare species of

animals, from ancient historyto modern day British politics.Indeed, one of the reasons heand Catherine moved toMonaco nearly three years

ago was to be able to devotetime to their other interests.

"We didn't come here to drinkgin and tonics on the terraceand watch the sun goingdown," he laughs, "but wewere ready for a change oflifestyle. I am non-executive

chairman of Foyles, non-executive director of a friend'sair charter company, I waschairman of the Air League [acharity] and trustee of theFoyle Foundation, both ofwhich I stepped down from on

moving to Monaco, and I was

chairman of Air Foyle, which Ihave now wound up. I hadtwo homes in the UK, that Ihave since sold, we have

children I just reached astage in life where I didn't so

much want to retire but I didwant to detach myself fromsome of these things and Icouldn't have done this if I'dstayed in Britain."Border-line fansHe says the couple, who have

been together for 30 years,plumped for Monaco forseveral reasons: It's attractive,we've got to know some nicepeople, English, Germans,

Americans, and I do all thethings I want, plus I can work

from here as well as anywhereelse. It's relatively crime free too.

Both he and Catherinerelish being close to France

and Italy and they reel off a listof small towns and villages

along the coast and in themountains that they visit

frequently. "We live in anapartment right on theMonaco-French border in the

north-east corner of thePrincipality and we own a

small building opposite whereI have my library. It means thatevery day I cross the road andgo to read and study inFrance, he chuckles. Thelibrary consists of 11,000

books. Among the volumesyou'll find in his collection aretwo penned by his own hand,Foyle's Philavery and Foyle'sFurther Philavery.

It all started in 1990 whenFoyle read an interview with

General Schwarzkopf, in whichthe Gulf War general des-cribed something said byanother official as being

bovine scatology: I knew whatbovine meant but not scato-

logy so I looked it up [itmeans, politely speaking,excrement] and after that,somewhat religiously, when-ever I saw or heard a word Ihadn't come across before Ilooked it up and wrote it

down. After 15 years I had1500. Foyle initially plannedto self-publish but on recom-mendation of an editor whowas helping with the manu-script he sent it to a publisher

who took the project on.Best-selling authorMuch to Foyle's amazement itbecame a best seller. "theIndependent gave me six whole

pages! he exclaims. I thinkpeople are fascinated with

language and words and then,of course, it became the

proverbial lavatory book. Thesequel followed: That was nota best seller, he adds with

typical good humour. Thepublisher put the two titles ina box set though and that'sstill available although thebooks are out of print now. Ibought the remaining stock!Obviously, you can find themboth in Foyles.

KengestionDespite trying to stop hishabit, he continues to look upobscure words, describing itas a compulsion. His favouriteword: kakistocracy - to beruled by the most inept

people. Another favourite is aword, he initially believed hehad created himself. I was sofed up with the traffic

problems in London whenKen Livingstone was mayor

that I started to refer to it as'kengestion'. I was sure I hadmade it up but then I Googledit and saw that it was alreadyin use, in the same context.

Talking with Livingstone ata celebrity lunch event in

Monaco last year Foyle, incharacteristic style, tried totalk to the former mayorabout what he had done tothe traffic. It was impossible, Icould not engage him in a

conversation about it, he hashis belief and everyone else iswrong. I didn't mention'kengestion' though, I thoughtit probably best not to, he

adds with a final flourish,topped with a generous dose

of hearty laughter.Hannah Marshall

Foyles on the day it opened on Charing Cross Road in 1906, the street where the flagship store still operates

Christopher Foyle in front of the Charing Cross Road store todayFounder: William Foyle

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