Green back with a vengeance

MARKS & Spencer's boss Stuart Rose should be looking over his shoulder. Old adversary Philip Green is back from holiday and gunning for the fallen retail icon.

Far from licking his wounds after a failed £12.5bn bid for the stores chain, the retail billionaire is going on the offensive.

He wants to raise the competitive pressure on M&S during the crucial autumn selling season.

His bid to squeeze Marks includes plans to open a further 58 Arcadia stores and add some 500,000 square feet of space to existing shops.

He has already held briefings with managers from Arcadia, which owns Topshop and Burtons, and will rally the troops at Bhs later this week.

Green declined to say what exactly was on the Bhs agenda, but it is likely he will ramp up the marketing budget to include TV ads for the first time in a decade.

LORD Kirkham is reportedly threatening to set up on his own if he fails in his £507m bid to take DFS private. The sofa group's founder and chairman upped his offer last week, but investors are still likely to block it.