George Davies, a man who can claim to have dressed the nation for the past quarter of a century, is self-taught in the ways of fashion.

A proud Scouser, he learnt much about dress-making from watching his mother, Mary - who died last year, aged 92 - and his aunts making their own clothes. That keen sense of observation has never left him. The father of seven, who lives in the Cotswolds, is renowned for being able to determine a female customer's vital statistics and measurements simply by looking at her.

After leaving Bootle Grammar School, he went to Birmingham University to study dentistry, but gave up his degree course in 1967 to join Littlewoods as a socks buyer.

Five years later, he set up Schoolcare, the mail order school uniform operation, before turning around Pippa Dee, the party-plan business. His next big turnaround was at Hepworth, the menswear chain, which he transformed into Next in 1982.

He was ousted in 1988 in a boardroom coup engineered by David Jones, the chief executive, and then joined forces with Asda to create the George at Asda range, which proved to be a huge success. By the time that he left in 2000, the business had an annual turnover of more than £600 million.

He created Per Una, based on Italian fashion, for Marks & Spencer, which was struggling at the time. The brand proved a hit and, in 2004, M&S bought it from him for £125 million.

Since Mr Davies's well-publicised spat with Sir Stuart Rose a year later, there has been speculation over the designer's likely departure date. Now we know - but, at a young 67, Mr Davies remains ambitious. He was linked recently with Lovesexmoney, the Italian fashion brand.

He told Liverpool's Daily Post this year: “I'm always interested in creating a new label which will be a big brand name. There's a niche in the market.”