John Lewis, that most British of retail institutions, has refused to apologise for comments by its managing director, describing France as “finished” as a country and Gare du Nord station in Paris as the “squalor pit of Europe”.
In a speech in which he advised entrepreneurs with assets in the country to “get them out quickly, Andy Street described the nation as “sclerotic, hopeless and downbeat” adding: “I have never been to a country more ill at ease . . . nothing works and worse, nobody cares about it.”
The comments, first reported by The Times, were made at an awards dinner in Canary Wharf on Wednesday night, after Mr Street was delayed coming back from a conference in Paris on the Eurostar.
“You get on the Eurostar from something I can only describe as the squalor pit of Europe, Gare du Nord, and you get off in a modern, forward looking station [St Pancras],” he said, adding that he though the food and drink at the London event were better than those he had received in Paris.
On Friday, John Lewis said that Mr Street would not be issuing an apology for the comments, which it said were “made in a tongue-in-cheek context”.
“He was delayed and had a rather poor experience coming back through the Gare du Nord,” a company spokesperson added.
The retailer, a favourite of the British middle classes, has no stores in France but has plans to launch a French website denominated in euros.
Mr Street has worked for John Lewis ever since he graduated from Oxford university in 1985 and became managing director in 2007. He is also the chair of Birmingham and Solihull’s Local Enterprise Partnership.
The comments prompted a storm of tweets, though some were supportive of Mr Street’s view. Michael Fabricant the Tory MP for Lichfield in Staffordshire, tweeted: “Anyone travelling on the filthy, graffiti covered Paris Metro will agree with the boss of John Lewis”.
Speaking at the World Retail Congress in Paris on Wednesday, Mr Street said that the retailer had “no plans” to take stores on the Continent despite its continued strong growth in the UK.
The critique from Mr Street comes after Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, launched a scathing broadside against the business culture of Europe. He told the FT that Europe was a “slacker with low expectations”, held back by the poor work ethic of its people and run by politicians that strangle technological progress with regulations.