When Vernon gets sick and his stores aren’t doing well, Richard steps in to help but decides to close them down, investing instead in a new concept he saw in America: the DIY superstore. Dodge City was named “for some unusual reason”, the first opened in Glasgow in 1974, with small high-street shops as its own competition. The hefty initial cost was financed entirely by bank borrowings, and despite Northcott’s lack of enthusiasm for DIY as a pastime, the business went from strength to strength.
Eventually there were more than 30 Dodge City stores in suburban locations with large parking lots – and in 1981 he sold the chain to Woolworth’s; it was rebranded as part of B&Q, which Woolworth had recently acquired from its founders.
Northcott went on to invest in Select, a London modeling agency with a high glamor quotient, and to launch Brown Bear, a group of furniture stores which he sold to jeweler Gerald Ratner, who promptly traded it. to carpet tycoon Phil (later Lord. ) Harris.
After the adventures of his six-year stay in Los Angeles – “a bit like the Wild West” – Northcott returned to buy a farming estate on the Hampshire-Sussex border and became chairman of Pet City, a pet supplies warehouse chain set up by former managers of Dodge City.
When that business was sold for £150 million to an American buyer in 1996, he collected another stash – and went on to take a stake in the business of jeweler Theo Fennell, whom he met at a golf event and helped . created an upmarket international brand with outlets from Dubai to Marbella and an eager following of celebrities and cash-rich Asian consumers.
In later years, he became a partner in several pub ventures and VQ, a 24-hour London brasserie chain.
Richard Northcott married, in 1985, Kirsten Lund, daughter of a Canadian shipping magnate – who in due course left him and then married former cricketer Mark Nicholas. He is survived by his three sons with Kirsten and the partner of his later years, Joanna Kurpiers.
Richard Northcott, born September 24, 1946, died January 7, 2024
