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You are: Home > Business > David Mallon

Rebel with a cause

As he embarks on a crusade to revive independent retailing across England, David Mallon explains to All About Manchester editor Evie Lucas why it all had to start in Manchester.

If I had a penny for every time I received a press release with the word 'ground-breaking' in it, I'd be able to buy that devastatingly expensive Chloe handbag that I've been dreaming about lately. David Mallon would probably raise a disapproving eyebrow at the banality of my ambition, yet I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt for calling his latest venture a 'ground-breaking retail experience'. That is, until he turns up for our interview half an hour late.

The man who strolls into The Circle Club in ripped jeans, a T-shirt and tattoos all over the place (I won't even attempt to describe the hair) is the 40-year-old owner of two very successful fashion labels, this private members club and the newly launched General Store among a few other projects.

I follow him into a private room for the interview determined to dislike him, despite his apologies for his tardiness, but my resolve fails after about two minutes because I find myself more intrigued than indignant.

The Stretford-born entrepreneur lives in Hong Kong five or six months of the year and travels the world most of the rest of the time, but he seems to function in a time zone of his own and at a contagious, laid-back pace. As he sinks into the settee with a cup of coffee and a look of absolute contentment, as if there is nowhere else he'd rather be, I have a feeling this will be a good interview.

"So what do you call home these days?" I ask.

"Manchester's my home," he replies unhesitatingly in a very Mancunian accent. "I'm proud to be Mancunian."

Manchester is the inspiration for Ringspun, the fashion label that Mallon launched eight years ago and that he now sells in 25 countries across the world. Not bad for a guy who started out by selling fake band T-shirts outside the Apollo. He talks about his brand with the wide-eyed excitement of a child:

"I have a very particular view and taste, and I work with bright, smart, artistic people to develop things that I like myself. We work really hard to produce ranges that are uncommon and develop new things all the time, and it's not a chore, it's something that we love to do."

In 2005 Mallon launched his second label, Elvis Jesus - upmarket urban streetwear with serious bling, which you can buy at Harvey Nichols and Flannels. He laughs out loud when I ask him who wears highly-embellished T-shirts with rock-infused religious imagery.

"It's not for the faint-hearted, that's for sure - our target footfall is gay black footballer," he says jokingly.

You can now buy both Ringspun and Elvis Jesus at the General Store - a new, independent store in Barton Arcade giving a nod to Manchester and its unique sense of style.

Founded by Mallon in partnership with Religion founder Darren Collins and former All Saints owner Stuart Trevor, the General Store brings together five successful brands under one roof in what it claims is a 'backlash against uniformity'.

Mallon explains: "It's a store for independent spirits, people who really don't want to spend all their time, effort and money on products that are mass produced in their multi-thousands and that are going to make them look like everyone else."

A quick look around the store confirms that it is indeed very different from anything on the high street. Housed within a Grade II listed building on Deansgate, it features changing rooms made from garden sheds, and classical Georgian furniture torched and burned. The clothes are very rock 'n' roll, very Manchester… very much for young people?

"We've always targeted people who are between 14 - 25 but you know what, I'm 40 and I still dress like a kid. I look at my own father at 40 and well, he was a grown man. I'm not, I'm a child. And it's not just me. My generation hasn't grown up. I think our target age group now is 14 to, dare I say, 40."

The General Store took two years and cost the best part of £500,000 to launch. At a time when independent retail is on its knees, does Mallon ever stop to wonder 'what have I done?'

"I do that every day of my life," he confirms, grinning widely. "I cry myself to sleep."

He laughs, but then clears his throat and sits up to talk business.

"Retail has been tough the last four or five years due to globalisation. If you walk down any high street in any city you'll find the same stores selling the same things everywhere.

"It's getting to the point where those little gems of stores that were true to each locality are just not there any more. We historically always sold to independent stores and they are disappearing. Why? Well, largely because the high street is doing it so much better and cheaper.

"But even so, there will always be people who don't want to look like everybody else. There will always be trend leaders, so there's a niche for independent retailers, but you need to have a format that works.

"We have a store that is classically independent, that is going to offer something new, something unique. But also, from a business point of view, we have a formula that is based on having a selection of brands in store that we own. So there is a mark-up that allows us to develop and to experiment.

"So yes, there is a risk about spending a decent amount of money, but the reason why we did it and not worried too much about it is because we believe in our business formula. The fact that we own the brands makes this different from other independent stores that buy a brand wholesale and therefore have more limited margins."

At the time of this interview, the General Store has been open for a month. And although Mallon says the first signs are positive, time will tell if this experiment will work. Right?

"I'm 40," he protests. "I don't have time."

So instead he is preparing to launch six new stores this year - two more in England and four in India. In the meantime, he is expanding The Circle Club (there are construction workers banging away as we speak) and developing his Manchester Fashion Network business, bringing people in the fashion industry together. How can one man cope with so much work?

"It stops me hanging around the street corners," he says.

"It probably stops you sleeping, too," I comment and he gives me a shrug of resignation, as if he has no choice in the matter.

"I know it's a lot but everything I do is quite interrelated. It's not like I own a building firm and I've got a couple of limousines and a café."

How does The Circle Club fit in then?

"Ah, that's an interesting question. It's my mid-life crisis," he says, laughing.

"This will actually become more of a base for Manchester Fashion Network - a meeting place, particularly during the day, for people in the fashion business in and around Manchester.

"Over and above that, it's probably ego. I wanted to be able to say 'you know what, I have something in Manchester that's relevant'. Before I bought The Circle Club I was running quite a successful business but didn't have a physical base in Manchester. And I think having a space like this, and having my store now in Manchester, is like putting a bit of a footprint on a city that's been important to me. We are going to try to launch the General Store across the country but doing it here in Manchester first for me is a very important thing."

Mallon's achievements are undoubtedly remarkable. But in typical Mancunian fashion he plays down his personal role in his own success.

"I work with great people," he says, and "In the Madchester years of the Haçienda and the whole music scene it was dead easy to make money, it really was. It's much harder for people now."

But there is one claim to fame that he will not relinquish.

"I made Tom Bloxham," he says, referring to the founder of the hugely successful Urban Splash. "Before he went into property development, Tom bought three floors in Affleck's Arcade, where he had a poster shop, and I was his first tenant. So I made him."

Mallon probably has better chances of winning his one-man war against fashion

globalisation than getting Bloxham to accept his claim, but one out of two ain't bad.

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