ANGELA AHRENDTS, the newly appointed chief executive of Burberry, has been wearing out the leather on her beautiful, black, Burberry stiletto shoes.

Last week she officially took over the driving seat — after a six-month induction under former chief executive Rose Marie Bravo — and immediately embarked on a tour of City analysts and shareholders (as well as meeting every member of staff in London).

Alongside finance director Stacey Cartwright, Ahrendts has certainly charmed the City. The shares rose 30¼p last week to close at 451p.

Ahrendts laid out plans to step up the expansion of the brand into America, China and Russia, and develop the more profitable accessories business. She is also planning to focus more on Burberry’s upmarket Prorsum range — which she has told analysts could account for 10% of sales (rather than the current 1.5%).

Unlike Bravo, Ahrendts also appears to be as passionate about overhauling the supply chain and IT systems as she is about the brand. Although Bravo transformed the Burberry brand, the supply chain and IT systems have yet to catch up.

But Ahrendts’s real challenge will be persuading the City to rerate Burberry. Despite an impressive share-price performance since its demerger from GUS, the firm is still rated at a double-digit discount to rival luxury-goods firms.

If Ahrendts can finally persuade the City to rate Burberry as a luxury-goods stock — rather than as a retailer — she will earn every penny of the potential £18m pay package that lured her away from Liz Claiborne.

Torex Retail

CHRIS MOORE, the chairman and chief executive of the software firm Torex Retail, should have been a footballer’s wife. In the past two years the 51-year-old has embarked on a shopping spree that would make even Victoria Beckham blush.

Since August 2004 he has spent more than £300m buying 11 rival firms. Last week Moore announced his latest acquisition: Retail-J for £50m. Like Torex, the firm specialises in software for the retail industry.

In two years the longest that Moore has gone without doing a deal is five months — but the spending spree is taking its toll.

Over the past 12 months shares in Torex Retail have plunged — almost halving in value as they have fallen from a high of 120p in September to close this week at 63¾p — as concern mounts in the City about Moore’s acquisition frenzy.

In a note to clients last week after the Retail-J acquisition, David Toms, an analyst at Numis, asked whether Torex was doing all those deals as a “way out of trouble”.

Toms also has concerns about the underlying performance of the business — and how to analyse it.

“Another acquisition muddies the water for Torex’s figures ... there will no doubt be another slew of exceptional/fair-value adjustments that will make the full-year numbers impossible to disentangle,” wrote Toms.

A growing number of investors share his concerns and have told Moore to put any further acquisitions on hold — and concentrate instead on integrating and growing the existing business.

Moore has promised them that he will make no more acquisitions this year. They will have to hope he doesn’t spot any bargains.