SPEAKER_02 0:10

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Men's Wear Style Podcast, episode 38. How are we doing? I'm your host Pete Brooker and this week we're going to be talking to Stephen Martin, the global malt whiskey specialist for White and Macai. We spoke about how the whiskey industry has become sympathicer with the lifestyle sector. We also discussed what it takes to be an ambassador for White and Mackay, the current state and trends of the whiskey market, and specifically what the future holds for one of the most coveted single malt whiskey brands, the Dalmore. Our editor at large, Menswear Style Beckloads, also drops in to give us the latest fashion news roundup on what's happening with the latest falling shares at ASOS. All that to come, but first make sure you're keeping up to date with all the news, reviews, and competitions over on the Menswear Style site at www.menswearstyle.co.uk. You're following us on the social at menswear style and you've downloaded the menswear style app from the app store. That way we can notify you and you can pretend to excuse yourself from any dinner party like you've just been called away on a secret mission. We all know how sexy that looks. If you want to get in touch with the show, have any questions or would like to be a guest, then drop us a line at infopenswearstyle.co.uk, okay? Here is that interview with Stephen Martin, Global Molt Whiskey Specialist for White and Mackay. It's my great pleasure to introduce to the podcast Stephen, who is the Global Molt Whiskey Specialist for White and Mackay. How are you doing today, Stephen?

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Wonderful, Peter. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Great, Stephen, it's awesome to have you on. We're gonna learn all about whiskey and in particular the Dalmore whiskey in this episode. So maybe if you could just give us a little backsketch to who you are and what it is you do.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

So my name's Steve Martin. I'm the um global malt whiskey specialist for a company called White and Mackay. White and Mackay are a whiskey manufacturer very much based in Scotland. Um our head office is in Glasgow. We produce blended whiskey, we produce um blended malt, and we also produce single malt whiskey. Um we own four single malt whiskey distilleries, um, one in the North Highlands, one in the Highlands, um, one out on an island called Jura, and um the other one in Spayside. Okay, great.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Um, and what is basically your day-to-day gig? Um take us through your routine.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Well, it it it can range. Um I spend a lot of time working in foreign markets, talking about whiskey, talking about um our single malt portfolio, whether that be with the on-trade, you know, the on-trade is very much where you build brands. Um, what is the on-trade? So that's your bars, restaurants, clubs, um, hotels.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Gotcha. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Um, and then obviously, very much, you know, we work in on on the flip side of the coin, the off-trade, where you know we start to look at whiskey specialists, supermarkets, big retailers. Um you know, I also do stuff, um, I also do bits and pieces with consumers as well. I think it's always a pleasure and a privilege to be out talking to the people that you know that buy your products. Um, you know, that really gets me going. And then, you know, of course, I do stuff internal as well. So yeah, I just work in markets all over Europe, North America, Asia, and um it's good fun, and um it's long, it's it's stressful, um your job's very much it's a lifestyle, you know, it's not a 95. Um, let me assure you, it's a lifestyle, you really kind of live it. But people say, Oh, that sounds great. It's only great if you like whiskey. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yeah. Well, can is it possible to do your gig without liking whiskey? Is it possible to be objective about it?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

You know what? I don't think so. I don't think so. Um no, I've read articles over the years about professional footballers who didn't particularly like football, they were just good at it. I don't know if the same could apply to working in this industry. Um because we're not, you know, we're not selling, you know, double glazing or you know, car insurance. We're selling something that people um are emotionally invested in, something, you know, brands that people love that mean so much um to our customers, you know, all over the world. So you kind of have to, you've got to, you know, you have to buy into what you're talking about. You have to, you know, you have to be emotionally connected to the romanticism of Scotch whiskey. Um, and that's something that of course is close to my heart and everybody that you know that I work with, you know, it's we have that common denominator.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Yeah. Yeah, I guess. I mean, I've I'm also guessing that one of the things that people must say to you all the time is that it the travel must be great. So you just mentioned off Mike you've come back from California. So I guess that is one caveat to the job that is one of the enjoyable traits.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

The travel's amazing because you get to experience a passion, Scotch whiskey, in um different countries and different cultures. And I think being very much from Scotland, it's uh it's incredible to see my national spirit adored in the literally the four corners of the globe. Go into countries that you've never heard of, and they love your national spirit, and they you know they're passionate about um you know the the produce of the land you're from. That's incredible. Um however it's tiring. You have to you've got to be able to manage yourself and look after yourself, and you can't do it forever. Um, you know, there's definitely it has a shelf life, but uh it's an amazing thing, it's an amazing thing to do, and it's an amazing opportunity should you know should it ever arise.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Steve, I want to talk about the Dalmore in particular, one of the brands on your portfolio. So, how would you say the Dalmore would distinguish itself from other whiskies that are on the market?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

It's the Dalmore was one of the brands that really drew me to Bike and Mackay when I worked for other um other other another whiskey company. I think when you look at the Dalmor, it's so far removed from the Roman and the Gloaming clans and kilts and that stereotypical shortbred tin Scottish, you know, you know, the stereotype. Um the Dalmor's very much about elegance, it's about luxury, um, it's about hospitality. And um it's just a remarkable luxury whiskey brand, and I think it's one of the few single malt whiskey brands that really do luxury well. You know, we're not good at that in Scotland, we're not great at that. Um, and this is the first single malt whiskey brand that have really kind of epitomized in luxury, um the Dalmore. And I think when you look at whiskey um regionally, and region is something that I was certainly discouraged from talking about when I started out in whiskey. We were very much told to talk about flavour as opposed to region. I've started talking more about region, and when we talk about the Dalmore, region's interesting because the Dalmor is a North Highland whiskey, it's North Highland from a place called Alness, just north of Inverness, and there's a number of distilleries up there now. Um, generally they'll produce a light green grassy style of spirit, but the Dalmore is the complete polar opposite. You know, at the Dalmor, certainly due to the quite unique still composition, we produce a malty, sweet, and robust new make. Um and what that does is that lets us um extensively mature. And something that's very different about the Dalmor, it's the focus that we place on maturation and the focus we place on wood. And due to the style of new make we produce, um, we can extensively mature and we can really focus on wood, and that's something that sets us apart.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Interesting. I mean it's it's also interesting when you mention the word luxury and you associate that with the whiskey. I suppose uh from me, where I come from, a blogger, journalistic viewpoint, I've started to see maybe in the last five years a real uh sea change or a focus where menswear bloggers are now accepting the whiskey side of life at the same time as they're looking at cars and high-end machinery, etc., and automobiles. And I think it all ties in with this word lifestyle, which I keep saying to people was this wonderful word that got invented at some point, and every it just kind of threw an umbrella and a huge trawler net over everything. So you can no longer well, you can now just become an expert in everything. You don't just have to talk about cashmere sweaters, you can talk about uh you can talk about whiskey, you can talk about I8 BMWs, etc etc. So have you noticed also that whiskey has now become poor part of a a person's lifestyle as much as it has become you know its own entity, if if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, I think that that makes perfect sense. I think it it has become part of lifestyle because well for a number of reasons. I think it'd be quite hard to pinpoint one reason, but I think you know when you talk about lifestyle and you know maybe that's that's linked in some ways to occasion. And um, you know, whiskey fits into occasion in so many different ways. Um, you know, it fits into so many other industries, whether that's design, whether it's fashion, whether that's food and drink, um, you know, whether that's art, there there's there's so much whiskey's linked to so many different industries.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Um has that only really just started to become apparent to both the whiskey industry and say the journalistic industry as well, that there could be uh a mutual collaboration with both of these audiences?

SPEAKER_00 10:21

I think so. It's maybe you know linked into the way the world's changed. Um whiskey was traditionally a very old-fashioned, you know, there was a very old-fashioned stigma attached to the Scotch whiskey industry, and you know, that it was to be enjoyed one way by a certain man of a certain age, um, of a certain class. Whereas I think that's changed, and you know, we're certainly that the we've got a far more millennial audience than we've ever had, you know, a digital tech savvy, uh a digital tech savvy audience that um are probably more invested in lifestyle as the older generation.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yeah, I mean that's well, from especially my viewpoint, that's where I'm seeing it crop up more and more, is is on social media, and I I think it's become more accessible, like you say, with the likes of people wanting to get introduced to elements of luxury and that that aspiration that you that you mentioned earlier. Uh it's it's interesting. I had I was on a tr press trip with the Dalmore uh a couple of months ago when we went to Bill Bow and I got speaking to the master distiller Richard Patterson, um, who by the way hates it when you spell his name wrong.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Well, did you spell it with two Ts?

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Yeah. But I it I didn't I had it in like a PDF presentation. I I spent like a couple of hours putting this nice presentation together for him, just for my own purpose, really, to phrase the questions, etc. And I didn't realise that Richard was going to be over my shoulder looking at exactly what I put together, so it was really just for my eyes only. But I spelt his name wrong. And he just stopped me straight away and goes, Oh, I hate that. You know, so straight away, straight away I was wrong footed. Anyway, but um he's a he's a real sweetheart, but he's also what I think Richard is primarily known for as being uh quite an experimenter, quite an innovator, um almost a virtuoso when it comes to putting these whiskeys together. Is that a fair and accurate description, would you say?

SPEAKER_00 12:22

I would say that that's a very fair and accurate um description. Again, working with Richard was one of the uh that that was one of the things that drew me to White and Mackay, looking from the outside in. I think whiskey, unlike other spirit categories, we have celebrities within whiskey, you know, people that to the outside world would have no idea. However, to whiskey enthusiasts, people like Richard Patterson are they they warrant celeb status. Um you know, he's a truly remarkable man, he's got more experience than probably anybody that I've ever come across within the industry. He's probably forgotten more about whiskey than I think I'll ever learn. And um obviously I've known who Richard is for a long time, but I only met him for the first time a couple of months ago when I joined White Mackay. And um I bumped into him in the office, and the first thing he said was he came up to me and he shook my hand, he said, Welcome aboard. Um, and then he said, Have you read my book? And I said, Oh no, and apparently he asks everybody this. You know, I thought I was special, but he asks everybody this, he says, Have you read my book? And I thought I tried to double bluff him, and um I thought, surely he's been in the industry so long, surely he's written more than one book. So I said, Which book? And he said, I've only ever written one. I thought, oh no. And honestly, I've read every whiskey book under the sun, I haven't read his, so I've read it now. Yeah, and um, you know, I read it last week and I went and told him he was very impressed. But um he certainly he is a he's an innovator, he experiments with the Dalmor. Richard is doing so much experimentation, and he's moving whiskeys through so many different types of casks. It's actually difficult for us to communicate this to the public because we have to try and keep up with what he's doing. Um, but but he does experiment. You know, experimentation with the Dalmor was going on long before Richard came on board. You know, we've got a long, you know, we've got a long list of uh experience within it within this field of caste management. Um the Mackenzie were actually they were experimenting as far back as the early 1870s with you know actually moving spirit from American oak into European oak, a caste that previously held Sherry. So, you know, there's always an element of calculated risk because casks are unpredictable, they're like people, they're unpredictable, they have their own personalities. Um however, we've got a lot of practice here, and we've got great relationships with Gonzalez Baez in the south of Spain, you know, the Sherry Triangle, we've got great relationships in Portugal, and certainly at Graham's, we've got great relationships to some of the wineries in Bordeaux, so we do have access to an incredible infantry of fine casks. Um, you know, so yeah, there's control, but you know, yeah, we do experiment a lot. I think the nature of the new make spirit coming out of Dalmore allows us to put to to transfer our spirit through so much active wood. Um, but yeah, we we do like to experiment, we do like to think we're at the forefront of you know cask management and exquisite cask curation.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

It seems to be that Richard is pretty much the trailblazer, um if if I can call him that of whiskey and and cask maturation. So I'm I'm curious, is there someone like a Padawan learner to use a Star Wars phrase? Is there someone beneath him? Because imagine with all of this innovation that he's doing, like you say it's quite hard to keep up with him. How do you keep the checks and measures in so that you know when Richard hands down the hand down the uh how would you say it? Hands down the cask?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Hands down the I don't know. I don't I don't know what the whiskey term for passing the baton is. What passing the a stave? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Yeah, so who who really is is his understudy and and is there such a thing?

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Well Richard's and he's been with White and Mackay 49 years now. So next year hopefully there's going to be some big celebrations. Um Richard's one of our two whiskey makers, and his understudy is a man called Greg Glass, who's who's not been with White and Mackay long, I think a couple of years. Um you know I I've been working with Greg a couple of months now, and honestly, I've very rarely seen somebody with as good a nose and as good an understanding of whiskey making as Greg. So I think the White and Mackay portfolio is in safe hands. Okay, good to know.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Um, and could you just tell us a little bit about the Dalmore King, the Alexander III, uh, which is I'm guessing one of the staple whiskies in the portfolio. And why is this whiskey balanced with so many different types of casks?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

So the Dalmor King Alexander III, that kind of sits right at the top, you know, it's the pinnacle of our principal collection, as we call it. Um, and the King Alexander the Third was launched to recognise and celebrate the Mackenzie's link to the Scottish Crown. There was an incident in 1263 when Colin of Kintel actually speared a charging stag that was headed straight for the King, King Alexander. And um, this is where you can still see the royal stag emblem on the bottle today. That was the Mackenzie's when they took the distillery in the 1860s. One of the first things they did was emblazoned the royal stag on the bottle. Um, so the King Alexander you know was launched um you know around ten years ago now to commemorate this incident, this this you know, this momentous occasion. Um were splitting the spirit between six different types of casks. That's unheard of, right? Um yeah, it's you'll hear it, you'll hear about it more and more now. There are dis there are whiskey brands and manufacturers experimenting with you know different casks now. But this, yeah, at the time, this was this was cut, this is cutting edge, this was real innovation. Um you know, we're we're we're splitting between bourbon, Madeira, Masala, you know, French Cabernet Sauvignon, port, sherry. And if we look at the different characteristics that you can, different characteristics that you can obtain from using casks that have previously held such products, you know, bourbon and Madeira, you know, Madeira coming from you know the wonderful island of Madeira. If you ever get a chance to go, go, it's unbelievable. Um, but you've got two different types of sweetness there where bourbon very much starts to lend vanilla, banana, coconut, the Madeira comes in with that kind of sweet, sticky date. Um you've got massala, Italian massala for maybe a little bit of dryness, and you've got Cabanny Sauvignon from Bordeaux, and you've got pork from Graham's, port pipes from Graham's, where that lends a wonderful tannin, and you know, it gives it almost a robust characteristic and a nice chocolatey note. And then with the sherry, the Matusalum all the off, so you get you know you get complexity there, and I think all in all, this just it just there's just so many layers to the King Alexander III, and it really is the epitome of the Dalmore house style, in my opinion. Um and I think when we talk about luxury, a whiskey like Dalmore, King Alexander III, it's affordable luxury, you know. It it truly is luxury, but it's affordable luxury, which I think is so important in today's market, and I think you know the Dalmore really is the perfect whiskey to give and the perfect whiskey to receive. And I think certainly this time of year, King Alexander the Third really is you know perfect Christmas present. So if you ask Santa, yeah, no, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Um, Steve, what can you tell us, if anything, about what next year will hold for the Dalmore? So we've you hinted that there's the 50th for Richard coming up. Does Richard keep it a surprise? Does he secretly then unveil um you know his marvellous medicine that he's been kept away for the last 50 years?

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Well, you know, there perhaps there will be some interesting bottlings that we will release release next year. There are um a couple in the pipeline. Um I wouldn't want to spoil a surprise though, but I think next year's a massive year for us at the Dalmor. A massive, massive year. Um the growth that we've seen in Asia and particularly China and Taiwan, we just can't make enough of the enough of the whiskey. You know, such is the demand out there and the thirst for our for our whiskey. Um, so you know, we're gonna see some massive growth, you know, we're we're gonna see some new interesting innovation products. Um, you know, we're gonna we're it's the the sky's the limit, I think, for a product like the Dalmore. And I think for Scotch whiskey in general, you know, I think there's around 36, 37 new distilleries currently in the pipeline in Scotland. So, you know, I think the category is going from strength to strength. And I think, you know, who is it that said a rising tide lifts all boats? I don't know. It was a famous writer, I can't remember, somebody far more intelligent than me. I think you know, with the category growing, you know, the Dalmor's only going to go from health to health, from from strength, from strength to strength.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Cool. Um how just as an aside, how do you pitch the Dalmor to the Asian market? I mean, we've seen really what if you make a misstep within marketing, we've seen recently we say like Doll Shake and Banner, how you can just make that misstep and all of a sudden you can wipe off two hundred, three hundred million of your market share. So do you when it comes to the Asian market in particular, do you have like an in house marketing team out there? Do you have someone that's you know can culturally lend an ear to what's going on, etc.?

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Well, I think of course. With marketing, you've got to be so careful with your messaging. You have to be consistent. And I think that's something that we're always quite, you know, we're always quite careful of with Dalmore. We always talk about exquisite cast curation, we talk about wood, we talk about experimentation. We try and keep the message consistent, certainly across all our kind of digital platforms and beyond. But I think when you look at the size of the Dalmor in Asia, it's very much you know, when we go back to the 1800s and you know, we go back to the McKenzie's, and even before the McKenzie's to the Mathesons, the Mathesons were very powerful business family out in Asia even back then. Um, and they're still a very powerful Mathesons are still very powerful businessmen in Asia today. And when the McKenzie's took over, you know, the McKenzie's did a number of things starting in the 1860s and 1870s that you know really transformed Almore's fortunes. You know, they started experimenting with extensive maturation, you know, they emblazoned the royal stag on the bottle, but they also started looking at export markets. Um, initially they exported to Australia. Um, however, when the Australian market crashed, they then used the Mathesons business connections and business network in Asia to start to distribute Dalmor in Asia. So we're going right back, you know, 120, 130 odd years, and we were exporting you know our single malt whiskey into Asia. So we've just had such a head start over so many other products and so many other brands that the Dalmor is very much ingrained in Asian culture, and you know, certainly in Asian drinking culture. And you know, in Asia they're very into gifting, they're into luxury. Um, you know, there's a number of luxury whiskey brands out there. If you look at you know, Johnny Walker Blue label or the McAllen, they perform very well in Asia. We very much see our ourselves you know competing in in that arena.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Um interesting. Steve, I've got to ask you, it you feel like you I when I speak to you, you've got a like a Rolodex of all this information. You've got you've got a you've got a great knowledge of the names and dates. Is it crucial for the job? I know when I spoke to Richard, and I've I've heard him talk on a number of occasions, he can reel off dates, he can reel off like a click of a finger. You know, he's almost like a savant. Do you then do you then have to like think, Jesus H Christ, I've got a I've got to retain all this, I've got to keep it all in somehow. How does it work? How do you do that basically?

SPEAKER_00 24:37

It's research, research, research, practice, practice, practice. Um, that's the thing with this job, it's a lifestyle. It's not nine to five, and you go home. You go home and you're picking up a book, you're going through dates, you're designing a presentation. I think something that's crucial for somebody who works in a brand experience role like myself is you have to come across credible. You've got to get your information right. Um, and the amount of times I've seen people that work in, you know, they that work front of house, if you like, they get the information wrong. You know, we were, you know, this is White and Mackay. We're a reputable whiskey manufacturer. We've got to be credible, we make incredible whiskey, and we've got to be getting this information right. So we have to know what we're talking about, we have to know these dates. Um as contentious as it may sound, but to us it's important, and um, you know, we do take it really seriously, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Well, um it's it's fascinating, and but you you look like such a young dude, Steve. I mean, how do you do you go through like ambassador training or do you is it like a process, a couple of years in research before you're you know put front of house and and reeled off into interviews like well thanks very much for saying I'm young.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Um it's all the moisturizer. But um no, it's I think like so many of us, I came from uh from a bar background. You know, I I I left school, I went to work in bars, I went to university for about three weeks. It wasn't for me. So, you know, I think at that point um it's probably timing and being in the right place at the right time, but working in bars back in the 60s and 70s, you know, and even the 80s, it was very much a stop gap. Whereas when I started working around bars, and I worked kind of all over the world in bars, and I saw that there was progression out with working behind the bar, that alcohol was an industry, and this is something I very much wanted to do. Um, so when the opportunity came along, um you know, seven, eight years ago now I started working with whiskey brands, I just kind of went for it and I've never looked back. But I think um the lessons I learned from working in hospitality were absolutely priceless, and um have stood me in such good stead for what I do today.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Stephen Martin there, the global malt whiskey specialist for White and Mackay. And if you want to find out more about the Dalmore, then head over to the website www.theddalmore.com. Okay, we're gonna speak to Beck Lodes now, editor at large for Men's Wear Style. Okay, I'd like to introduce to the podcast now. Beck Lodes, how are you doing today, Bex?

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Hi Pete, yeah, I'm good, thank you. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 27:20

I'm real cool. So, Bex, fresh off the press, Mr. Porter has announced the top ten dressed men of 2018. Who would you have liked to have seen in this list that's not in this list?

SPEAKER_03 27:32

I think Jeff Goldblum should have been on there.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Weird, that is so weird. Oh, I had Jeff Goldblum written down.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

Did he?

SPEAKER_02 27:39

Well, I actually don't have it written down. It's not like countdown where you have to show a dictionary corner your answers. This is on the Mr. Porter site, it's best dressed men of 2018. We have got Mr. Donald Glover.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Yeah. He's quite cool.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Yeah, he's quite cool. There's a lot of this, like the tuxedo, the peak lapel, but the the the lapels are deeply contrasting to the colour of the actual suit, isn't it? Um I think that's that's quite cool. I like what he's doing there. Key from Shin Nee. Have you ever heard of him?

SPEAKER_03 28:12

No, never heard of him.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

Okay. Oh, I do like Vincent Gazelle. He's one of my favourites.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

Yeah, he's cool. He is cool.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Yeah, he looks the nuts as well. He looks like typically Laissez faire French and reminds me of Richard Badull.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

Oh, true. Yeah, I can say about that.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Yeah. And Tyler the creator.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Oh, right, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

That was a very excoriating review of Tyler, just in the tone of your voice there, Bex.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

I don't really know it, but I don't know who he is, really. I've heard of him before, but I've never even heard of the fella.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Mr. Hector Bellerin.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

That actually looks quite cool. He's almost look like he sneaked out in his pajamas there, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_03 28:53

It does a bit.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Yeah. Mr. Prince Charles. Or his Royal Highness, I should say, Prince Charles.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

He's rocking the wide-leg trousers in that, isn't he?

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Yeah, I feel like they have to throw Prince Charles in every now and again. Um and lastly, this dude, Mr. Timothy Chalamet.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:14

Who looks very cool in his Baluti, white ballooty suit in the picture here. So he was in Interstellar. Did you ever watch that?

SPEAKER_03 29:21

No, I haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Yeah, you should do, that's awesome. But he's got this very vampirish, translucent skin, jet black hair, and anyone that wears like a white tuxedo, you'd see who is it? Is it Jared Leto would do that all the time? You know, if you've got that real pale complexion, but you can contrast that with like a really cool fedora or black hat and then black boots. It just uh punctuates the look, it looks awesome. And he knows how to do it. Or someone styling him knows how to do it, which I think is better. So what else is in the news, Bex?

SPEAKER_03 29:54

Um, well, I guess the shock to some people might not have been a shock to some, but it was uh in the in the retail industry, um, about ASOS their um profits have hit a massive low, I think. Um yeah, not not great uh day for them, absolutely. Um I think yeah, apparently it was one of the worst Novembers, um, according to reports.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

And very strange as well, because it's what I found interesting with the this report is how all of the other stores have this uh symbiotic relationship now with each other. So if one is affected, the other one gets deeply affected. So ASOS shares are down crikey, what was it? Uh 40% in the morning's trading yesterday. Um I mean you just have to look at the graph, it looks like a just like it's falling off the face of a cliff.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

That's awful.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Um but then boohoo just go crikey, what's happened over there? Because now we're seeing a massive share price slump as well. Next are JD Sports R, but I mean that's it's crazy how you'd think that these guys should be relishing in their competition, having hard times, but in fact, everything affects each other, they're all entwined, aren't they? Really in the same market. Um Mike Ashley of Sports Direct. So he's the one that like a couple of weeks ago just said that we're all we're all screwed. He said the high street's dead, everyone's dead. I'm dead. Um in fact, here is Mike Ashley being discussed on the Wake Up to Money podcast this morning.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Uh loads in the papers, Louise, this morning. There's an interesting one in the mail on Sunday yesterday. I'm sure it's been picked up by a few today about the Debonham's uh sports direct back and forth after Mike Ashley said, Here, have have an interest for elan. Debonham said, No thanks. We don't like the terms. We don't like the string, the strings attached. And then the Debonham's chairman at the weekend did a interview with the mail on Sunday, sort of saying to Mike Ashley, put up or shut up. If you want to buy Debonham's, you want to take it over, make an offer, but we need to crack on and do things the way we want to do at the minute.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

But he yeah, he said it was the worst trading in November, the worst on record, unbelievably bad. I am quoting uh off the BBC website. So very interesting. I think we'll see a lot of insolvency on the high street come the new year. So many brands, so many high street chains depend on Christmas, depend on the Black Friday. And if we're seeing massive slumps now, then you know, if this is their return to Last Chancellor, come New Year, some of these guys will be done and done, I think. Anyway, Bex, I think we're done for this episode. In fact, for the year. So wish you Merry Christmas, happy new year, Bex, and I'll speak to you soon. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

Okay, thank you. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Thank you, Beck Loads. Thank you, Steven Martin, for coming onto the show. The Dalmore.com is the place to go to find out more about the Dalmore brand. Thank you, the listener, for tuning in, and remember it's only fashion people, and you're never fully dressed without a smile.