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A year on from Peacocks' collapse, the value retailer group is back on its feet. Tiffany Holland talks to Philip Day of Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, the man behind its rescue.
Edinburgh Woollen Mill boss Philip Day usually shuns attention, but he was forced into the media spotlight when almost a year ago he acquired collapsed fashion retailer Peacocks out of administration, rescuing a well-liked brand and saving 6,000 jobs.
Eleven months into the turnaround, Day says Peacocks is debt free.
He says: "We've developed the products for the future. We've realigned the demographic with beautiful basics and we've added value, using the best raw materials. The customer has loved it and they have come back in volume."
In the year since Peacocks hit the wall, the economy has continued to wreak havoc on the retail sector. The headline-grabbing collapses of Blockbuster, HMV and Jessops this month provided a stark reminder of the difficult reality retailers face.
But Peacocks has so far been a good news story, and Day is hopeful for his peers...