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The executive chair of Paul Smith says working from home 鈥渏ust doesn鈥檛 work鈥� for young people and has urged the government to stay out of decisions over where employees work.

Ewan Venters argues that younger workers risk missing the informal learning and mentoring that comes from being around more experienced colleagues. He traces his own career back to joining Sainsbury鈥檚 at sixteen and learning from senior business figures by working alongside them, describing the experience as his 鈥渦niversity education鈥�.

Venters says he is a 鈥渉uge fan鈥� of flexibility, but believes individual businesses rather than government should decide how it works. 鈥淟et business figure out the flexibility,鈥� he says. 鈥淧lease, let鈥檚 not have government intervention on whether you can work from home or not.鈥�

He says the government鈥檚 approach to employment rights will be one of the things he watches most closely.

Venters took over as executive chair of Paul Smith after joining the board to review a business that has recorded losses for six consecutive years. He says previous management failed to respond quickly enough to structural changes in fashion retail as the wholesale market consolidated. 鈥淨uite frankly, they did take the eye off the ball,鈥�.

The changing retail landscape also leads Venters into a critique of pre-pack administrations. Paul Smith is among the creditors affected by the restructuring of Harvey Nichols, and Venters describes the use of pre-packs as 鈥渄ubious in terms of ethics and way business gets done鈥�. He says suppliers could recover only a fraction of what they are owed and questions the impact on smaller brands.

We asked Frasers Group, who bought Harvey Nichols out of administration, for a response, but they have not replied at the moment.

Internationally, Venters points to the US as one of Paul Smith鈥檚 biggest opportunities. He says the brand is growing four to five times faster there than anywhere else in the world and is preparing to open on Madison Avenue.

He also calls for the return of tax-free shopping for international visitors to Britain, arguing that its removal has damaged growth.

Presenter: Sean Farrington
Producer: Olie D'Albertanson
Editor: Henry Jones

00:00 Will and Sean intro the pod
03:00 Ewan joins the pod - explains why he's at Paul Smith
05:27 Losses and what went wrong at Paul Smith
07:24 Recovery plan.
10:34 Jobs, productivity and AI
16:27 Harvey Nichols and pre-pack administrations
21:26 America Growth Strategy
23:42 WFH and back to the office
29:16 UK Budget and Tax-Free shopping

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