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Jon Johannesson On Building A New Kingdom
“I’m still interested in business and have plans to continue doing business,” Jon Johannesson, 44, said in an interview to Bloomberg.

“I’m no longer interested in building any kind of empire again. It interests me more to own a little kingdom and manage it properly. I’m interested in the markets in Britain and the U.S., and the markets that extend from those.”

“You can revel in past mistakes forever, but if you get stuck in the rear-view mirror, you’ll lose your creativity,” said Johannesson. “I’m 44 years old, full of energy and ideas, which will be useful in the second half.”

"On My Own’

The plan is to get going on my own,” Johannesson said. His next enterprise will respond to the “rapidly changing” retail landscape. “The Internet has changed everything and will continue to change the way consumers shop in the coming years. Shopping centers are becoming less and less relevant,” he said.

In the U.K. in particular, shoppers are relying more on Internet options, according to Johannesson. While he says brands will still need high-street outlets to display their goods in prime locations, the bulk of the industry’s trade will be in the virtual sphere.

“There will be a complete revolution in this sector,” he said. “In the U.K. people are saying that the high street is suffering because of the recession. That’s not the case: the high street is suffering because people’s shopping behavior is changing.”

Jon Johannesson’s career started more than two decades ago. Together with his father Johannes Jonsson, he opened a chain of Bonus supermarkets in Iceland in 1989. His entry on to the British retail scene was financed through borrowing funds needed to snap up a number of U.K. brands. Johannesson’s expansion into that market included the acquisition of toy store Hamleys Plc (HYL) and department store House of Fraser Plc. Both have since been sold.