Theo Paphitis

Theo Paphitis is a hard man to pin down. When Retail Week spoke to the Ryman owner and Dragons’ Den star last week, he had just landed from a business trip to China, and was juggling conversations with meetings at his HQ to prepare the Twitter launch of his new lingerie brand Boux Avenue.

He was also on his way to a shoot for his latest TV show, while organising a trip to Southampton Solent University to pick up an honorary doctorate recognising his contribution to lifelong learning.

Paphitis certainly likes to keep himself busy, and he’s been that way since he was a youngster. The charismatic Cyprus-born entrepreneur emigrated to Britain in the 1960s and, while battling with dyslexia as a schoolboy, ended up running his north London school tuck shop by the age of 15.

His first and “worst” job, according to Paphitis, was as tea boy and filing clerk at an insurance company. However, shortly after this he took his first steps in retailing, working as a sales assistant for Watches of Switzerland on Bond Street.

And it is retail where Paphitis has made his fortune. The 2010 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Paphitis’s wealth at £160m, £15m up on the previous year. He made £100m from the sale of lingerie chain La Senza in 2006, after buying it for £1 in 1998, cementing his reputation as a turnaround man.

But that was not to be his last dalliance with the company. Earlier this year there were noises that he might try to buy it back, but when that came to nothing he decided that if he couldn’t join them, he’d try to beat them, setting up his own lingerie business, Boux Avenue, which will launch next spring.

Like many a successful entrepreneur, the affable yet fiery Paphitis is a serial optimist, and views the recession as a time of opportunity.

His other major interest is the stationer Ryman, which he bought out of insolvency and has turned around. Pre-tax profits rose from £4.2m to £5.7m in the year to March 28 2009.

Paphitis is known for his no nonsense approach, and is quite open about what motivates him. “There are three reasons to be in business: to make money, to have fun - and to make money,” he has said in the past. He also previously said: “What drives an individual like me is to be the best, to be successful.”

Paphitis - who describes himself as competitive, impatient and com­passionate - was hoping his Midas touch would rub off on Woolworths as he hatched a plan to rescue the business in 2008. Unfortunately his plan - like others from would-be purchasers - failed, and he still talks passionately about the episode if you get him on the subject today.

Outside of business, Paphitis has been making waves in the TV world since 2005, when he was asked to join the Dragons’ Den series. He has gone on to make other programmes for the BBC including Theo’s Adventure Capitalists and The Buying Game, making him one of the most high-profile retailers in the country.

But Paphitis likes to use his fame for the good of the retail sector too. In early 2009 he was appointed patron for Skillsmart Retail, the Sector Skills Council for Retail, and waves the flag for skills in general. For the past few years he has given an impassioned opening speech to retail’s up and coming stars at the Retail Week Rising Star Awards.

When he’s not filming or clocking up air miles, Paphitis likes to keep fit, making use of his gym and swimming pool in his Surrey mansion he shares with his children and his wife Debbie, better known as “Mrs P”.

As well as owning a string of fancy cars, he is a football fanatic, and was chairman of Millwall FC for eight years, taking the club out of administration. Under his ownership the club got promoted to the Championship, played against Manchester United in the FA Cup final, and got into Europe for the first time in their history.

Whether he is selling bras, ballpoint pens or bums on seats at a football stadium, the busy entrepreneur and TV personality certainly knows how to make money, even if he’s too busy to enjoy it most of the time.