UH OH, I hear there’s trouble and strife round at Per Una, the flagship brand of Marks & Spencer – only this time it doesn’t involve boss Sir Stuart Rose.

George Davies, 65, the larger-than-life so-called “retail revolutionary” behind the brand, has apparently fallen out with the Per Una chief executive, Fiona Davies – who also happens to be his wife.

Davies, who founded high-street retailer Next and George at Asda, resigned from M&S in a fit of pique in 2005 that Rose later described as a lovers’ tiff.

The pair made up and Davies returned to the fold under a “gentlemen’s agreement” as Per Una chairman. He has built the label into a family business – three of his five daughters have worked there as well as his wife. (Hmm, should have been an MP.)

But I’m told the bust-up between three-times married Davies and his wife is going to be even harder to patch up. The couple, who design the Per Una brand from a private office close to their family home in the Cotswolds, have separated and are headed for divorce.

Davies established the Per Una range, retaining ownership of the brand until he sold it to M&S for £125m in 2004.

Insiders dismissed claims that sales figures for Per Una have been sliding recently, insisting the bust-up is purely of a marital nature, not a business one. The figures are not separated out from those of M&S as a whole.

One source said: “It’s business as usual. They are both being completely professional.”

Davies, who last year celebrated 25 years in the fashion industry, was this weekend working as normal, attending the Euroshop international retail fair in Düsseldorf.

Davies is renowned for his ability to bounce back. The son of a Liverpool sausage-maker, he claims to have learnt about fashion by watching his mother, aunt and cousins make and mend their own clothes.

Let’s hope he manages to patch up this one, too.

I HEAR a radical change of image is on the cards at Kaupthing Bank. The Icelandic finance house, popular among entrepreneurs, has often had spirited marketing material featuring profiles and glossy pictures of clients, including Karen Millen, the fashion retailer, and Gordon Ramsay, the mouthy chef. But, just a week before the new report and accounts are due out, I’ve been told the celeb idea has been binned in favour of a more traditional approach.

Bit strange – until I spotted the extract in last year’s report on one of its biggest clients whose trading losses in recent months are thought to be nudging $1 billion. It reads: “Robert Tchenguiz is known among entrepreneurs for his financial savvy, unconventional funding strategies and ability to realise a good opportunity when it presents itself. Interestingly enough, these are exactly the same qualities that make Kaupthing Bank his investment bank of choice.”

Pay deal is just a dead loss

CORPORATE-GOVERNANCE geeks have unearthed a few grave situations, but none quite like this.

Ralph Roberts, the 87-year-old founder of US cable TV giant Comcast, has managed to secure a remuneration package that guarantees he will be paid for five years after his death.

The pay deal was spotted by Stephen Davis at Yale University’s Millstein Center for Corporate Governance.

Roberts’ pay from last year was not disclosed, but the year before he collected a total of $24m (£12m).

On that basis, Davis warned that shareholders could be paying as much as $120m to Roberts after his death.

Davis told Prufrock: “One wonders what value he will be contributing once he’s dead.”

The revelation got investors coffin and spluttering. They have complained furiously to the board of Comcast, which is reportedly considering killing the plan.

Finding time to go clubbing with Tiger

AS the City emptied for the public festival ‘half-term’, Prufrock headed west to the parties of London Fashion Week. Among the glitz, I was surprised to find that the biggest hype surrounded a designer who appears to be offering to make watches out of old golf clubs. It sounded rather inappropriate to me – particularly given all the concern from big brands about the proliferation of cheap counterfeits . So I tracked down Richard Vedelago, the designer, at Cipriani where he was celebrating the imminent launch of his new London bou-tique, Frozen Gems. Happily, he explained his new superdeluxe watches are being made from famous clubs that once belonged to top pros. So far he has a club used by Tiger Woods in the 1999 US Open and hopes to procure clubs used by Jack Nicklaus and other giants of the game and turn them into themed wrist-wear. There is no truth to the rumour that the hands on these watches will be stuck at one particular time: Fore!

SPOTTED: it was good to see Richard Eyre, chairman of GCap Media, having a cosy tête-à-tête with rival Charles Allen, the former ITV supremo and now head of Global Radio, in Claridge’s on Tuesday evening. Global, which owns Heart radio, has been desperately trying to persuade GCap shareholders to accept its £313m offer. GCap owns Classic FM and Capital Radio.

In recent days rumours have circulated that the deal was on the rocks. Last week things all seemed very friendly to me.

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