| Mary Portas | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 May 1960 Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom |
| Citizenship | British |
| Education | St Joan of Arc Convent, Hertfordshire |
| Alma mater | Watford School of Art |
| Occupation | Retail consultant |
| Employer | Yellowdoor |
| Known for | Television presenter, author |
| Website | |
| http://www.maryportas.com | |
Mary Portas (born 28 May 1960),[1] is an English retail adviser, journalist and television presenter.
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Portas was born and brought up in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, in a family of five children. Educated at St Joan of Arc Catholic School, Rickmansworth,[2] she looked after her youngest brother following the death of her mother when she was 16. Her father, who died two years later, was sales director of Brooke Bond, the tea manufacturer.[3]
Portas discovered a passion and talent for drama at an early age: she was awarded a place at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but the sudden death of her father prevented her from taking it up.
Portas started her career in retail with a Saturday job in John Lewis. She then had a part-time, and later a full-time, job with Harrods where she was responsible for window displays for about three years,[2] before joining TopShop as display manager. While in this job, she was spotted by Burton Group chairman Sir Ralph Halpern.[4]
Portas is credited with turning Harvey Nichols into a leading modern fashion brand.[5] She created the Harvey Nichols show windows that became part of the guided tours of London — one of her most famous displays was "Autumn Intrusion" - a commission by artist Thomas Heatherwick that won a D&AD Gold award in 1997.[6][7] She then persuaded the store's owners to use younger designers, and gained publicity in the BBC’s Absolutely Fabulous series in the 1990s, after promising writer and star of the show Jennifer Saunders the run of the store for research in return for Saunders namechecking the business.[8] By the age of 30, Portas was a member of the company's board.
Portas left Harvey Nichols to launch Yellowdoor, a Retail & Brand agency that she now runs with Peter Cross. Yellowdoor advises retail, fashion, luxury, and consumer brands on Strategy, Communications, and Marketing.[9] Yellowdoor's clients include Louis Vuitton, Westfield London, Westfield Stratford City, Clarks, Swarovski, and Australian retail brands Sportsgirl and Sussan.[9]
Portas is claimed to be one of the UK's foremost authorities on retail and brand communication.[10][11] She regularly travels around the world advising on retail strategy and frequently lectures on the theme of brands and retail.
On 19 June 2009, in a ceremony at Galashiels, Heriot-Watt University awarded Portas a Doctorate of Letters in recognition of her career and her contribution to the advancement of marketing and brand communications within the retail sector.
Portas's first book, Windows — the Art of Retail Display, was published in five languages. She writes a weekly column, Shop!, for the Daily Telegraph magazine, reviewing shops across the country. She started writing the column in 2005 and it was her critiquing of shops that was the inspiration for the BBC documentary and accompanying book.[12]
After getting her TV break on Richard & Judy, BBC 2 began airing Mary Queen of Shops in June 2007. The first series comprised four episodes in which Portas visited a number of failing shops, aiming to help the owners revitalise their businesses. The BBC published a tie-in book, entitled How to Shop with Mary Queen of Shops. The second, six-part, series was aired from June 2008, and the three-part Mary Queen of Charity Shops in June 2009. A third series of Mary Queen of Shops began in June 2010 and dealt with independent shops including a bakery, a local village shop and a grocer. In 2011 Portas joined Channel 4, and created a new series Mary Portas: Secret Shopper that saw her using different disguies and secret filming to reveal bad customer service in UK shops.[13] Her latest series for the channel, Mary Queen of Frocks was a departure from the produced shows that Mary had presented previously, and instead was an observational documentary that followed Mary as she tried to launch her own shop aimed at 40+ women with UK retailer House of Fraser.[14][15]
Following the BBC2 Mary Queen of Charity Shops in June 2009, Mary was appointed as Global Retail Ambassador for Save the Children.[16] She developed the "Living & Giving" concept as a new type of charity shop that puts the local community at its heart - "not just a shop, but a place to inspire, share, create, meet and discover".[17] The first Living & Giving shop Portas opened was a three week long pop up at Westfield London, earning the charity over £190,000.[18] Portas has gone on to open 4 permanent Living & Giving shops in Edinburgh, Westbourne Grove, Primrose Hill, and Parson's Green.[17][18][19]
Also in 2011, she designed a range of shoes exclusively for Clarks.
In August 2011 she opened her first retail shop as a concession in House of Fraser's Oxford Street branch.[20] The shop, named Mary & House of Fraser, sells clothing and lifestyle products aimed at the 40+ female market,[21] and was filmed for a Channel 4 documentary Mary Queen of Frocks that aired in October 2011.
In May 2011 she was appointed by the Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to lead an independent review into the future of the high street. She published her report "The Portas Review" on 13 December 2011.[22] Portas states the aim of her review to "put the heart back into the centre of our High Streets, re-imagined as destinations for socialising, culture, health, wellbeing, creativity and learning".[23] The review goes on to detail 28 specific recommendations[24] -
1. Put in place a “Town Team”: a visionary, strategic and strong operational management team for high streets
2. Empower successful Business Improvement Districts to take on more responsibilities and powers and become “Super-BIDs”
3. Legislate to allow landlords to become high street investors by contributing to their Business Improvement District
4. Establish a new “National Market Day” where budding shopkeepers can try their hand at operating a low-cost retail business
5. Make it easier for people to become market traders by removing unnecessary regulations so that anyone can trade on the high street unless there is a valid reason why not
6. Government should consider whether business rates can better support small businesses and independent retailers
7. Local authorities should use their new discretionary powers to give business rate concessions to new local businesses
8. Make business rates work for business by reviewing the use of the RPI with a view to changing the calculation to CPI
9. Local areas should implement free controlled parking schemes that work for their town centres and we should have a new parking league table
10. Town Teams should focus on making high streets accessible, attractive and safe
11. Government should include high street deregulation as part of their ongoing work on freeing up red tape
12. Address the restrictive aspects of the ‘Use Class’ system to make it easier to change the uses of key properties on the high street
13. Put betting shops into a separate ‘Use Class’ of their own
14. Make explicit a presumption in favour of town centre development in the wording of the National Planning Policy Framework
15. Introduce Secretary of State “exceptional sign off ” for all new out-of-town developments and require all large new developments to have an “affordable shops” quota
16. Large retailers should support and mentor local businesses and independent retailers
17. Retailers should report on their support of local high streets in their annual report
18. Encourage a contract of care between landlords and their commercial tenants by promoting the leasing code and supporting the use of lease structures other than upward only rent reviews, especially for small businesses
19. Explore further disincentives to prevent landlords from leaving units vacant
20. Banks who own empty property on the high street should either administer these assets well or be required to sell them
21. Local authorities should make more proactive use of Compulsory Purchase Order powers to encourage the redevelopment of key high street retail space
22. Empower local authorities to step in when landlords are negligent with new “Empty Shop Management Orders”
23. Introduce a public register of high street landlords
24. Run a high profile campaign to get people involved in Neighbourhood Plans
25. Promote the inclusion of the High Street in Neighbourhood Plans
26. Developers should make a financial contribution to ensure that the local community has a strong voice in the planning system
27. Support imaginative community use of empty properties through Community Right to Buy, Meanwhile Use and a new “Community Right to Try”
28. Run a number of High Street Pilots to test proof of concept
On December 13th the Prime Minister David Cameron issued a statement thanking Portas for her review and explaining that the Government would respond to her recommendations in Spring 2012.[25] Cameron said "I am delighted that Mary Portas has produced such a clear vision of how we can create vibrant and diverse town centres and breathe life back into our high streets."[25]
She was named as one of the top 100 Tweeters in the UK by The Independent in 2011.
Portas was married to chemical engineer and Unilever executive Graham Portas for 14 years and they have a son and a daughter.[2] Portas now lives with her civil partner,[26] Grazia magazine fashion features editor Melanie Rickey, in Maida Vale with her children, after an amicable divorce from her husband.[3]
She spends her money on art, wine, theatre and chocolate, and enjoys gardening.[2]