34 Simon Pritchard

This year, Sir Philip Green’s fashion empire gave its biggest sign to date that ecommerce is firmly on its agenda with the re-launch of all of its etail sites. Pritchard, who joined the fashion group from DSGi, has led the re-launch of brands including Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis to make the sites “real fashion destinations”.

Arcadia also launched its first new brand for many years - Style369 - a fashion website for the plus size Evans customer, which aims to be younger and more fashion led following on from the success of its collaboration with Gossip singer Beth Ditto.

While Asos continues to carry the baton for young online fashion, Arcadia has been slower to take advantage of the internet, where its younger customer particularly is spending so much of their time.

Asos now rolls off the tongue of the young fashion shopper as easily and frequently as Topshop, and Arcadia has to make sure it is better and faster with its online offer than it has been in the past. So far the signs are that Pritchard is the right man to lead this charge.