In the news: The Entertainer's chief executive Gary Grant profiled

Gary Grant, co-founder and chief executive of The Entertainer, is not toying around with the business. After 32 years of building the retailer in the UK, Grant has signed a deal to open a first overseas store in Dubai. And he is as excited as a child on Christmas day.

“It has gone from £32,000 a year turnover to us heading towards £125m turnover 32 years later,” he says.

Did he ever envisage such growth all those years ago? “Never. How can a 23-year-old with no money dream that something could have grown like it has?” he says.

Grant says it would have been impossible for him to even think of operating 20 shops. But now, as The Entertainer approaches 90 UK stores, Grant believes if he can make a success of Dubai then “the world is our oyster”.

Grant’s positivity has been key to the running of the business, which revealed an soaring pre-tax profits to £5.5m in the year to January 31 from £1.3m the previous year and sales up 36% to £112.5m.

Grant founded The Entertainer with his wife Cath after an ailing toy store in his home town of Amersham came up for sale. “I have retail in me. I knew that with a certain amount of intuition I could make something work,” he says.

Grant has played the long game, gradually adding stores to The Entertainer’s estate.

However, that all changed when the recession hit in 2008.

“It was the most difficult three months [when the recession started] that I’ve ever had in 30 years of business. It was a complete unknown,” he says.

The downturn created an opportunity for The Entertainer that Grant was quick to realise. The demise of Woolworths, which was the top toy retailer at the time of its collapse, left a big hole that The Entertainer helped to plug, adding 50 shops by 2010.

“It has been rapid growth but it’s all calculated,” says Grant, who believes that caution has been key to The Entertainer’s survival, because the retailer “owes virtually nothing”.

That doesn’t mean that Grant is risk-averse - he tells Retail Week that the family home has always been on the line if the business doesn’t succeed.

“I’ve had to put my heart and soul into the business. I’ve worked long hours but it’s no different to any other entrepreneur,” he says.

It’s that motivation and will to succeed that Grant believes has inspired ambition in his four children. His two eldest sons, Duncan and Stuart, now help run the family business.

Duncan is director of multichannel and Stuart is buying director.

“I feel reinvigorated because both my sons now work in the business and they both have completely different skills. I’m really excited about the next generation, they’re seeing things differently to me,” he says.

However, Grant still enjoys overseeing every part of the retailer.

“My senior staff are possibly too kind to say that I’m an interferer but I like finding out how the business is operating. I always spot the detail,” he says.

“I’m not a planner. I dislike meetings, I like to take the day as it comes. I love to do things that I love doing such as making deals happen and I still like to sign all the cheques.”

His management method seems to be working because 70 employees have worked at the company for more than 10 years.

Grant is extremely complimentary about his employees and his Christian faith means that he is a rare breed in the retailing world for not opening his stores on a Sunday in order to ensure staff can spend time with their families.

In his spare time Grant volunteers for charity and earlier this year he took up cycling, completing a 70-mile ride around the Isle of Wight to raise money for disabled children.

With just over 12 weeks to Christmas, Grant’s work load is ramping up but he will be sure to raise a glass of sherry and a mince pie to what looks as if it will be another successful year for The Entertainer.