The Rise and Fall...and Rise Again

Gerald Ratner joined the family business in 1966, and built up an extremely successful chain of jewellers during the '80s, of which he was chief exec.  In 1991 he made an infamous speech to a private audience at the IoD which was instantly seized upon by the media.  He was sacked 18 months later, and in 1994 the Ratner name was expunged from the company, renamed The Signet Group.
He went home, cycled to get his head together, then for four years he worked as a general business consultant, before setting up a health club in Henley. He sold it for £3.9m in 2001, when one of the club's members, Goldsmiths the Jewellers head, Jurek Piasecki, encouraged him to go back into the jewellery trade. Subsequently Ratner set up a new, much smaller on-line jewellery business called GeraldOnline.  In August 2006, press speculation has noted that Ratner is interested in acquiring the UK business of Signet Group plc — the re-named Ratner's group. He is a married father of four and a fitness fanatic, cycling around 20 miles per day.