Bernard Lewis, the retail entrepreneur who built the fashion chain River Island, celebrated his 80 th birthday this month and is showing no whims to retire.

After decades at the helm of high street retailer River Island, Lewis is still involved in the day-to-day operations of the group. "It's not good looking at merchandise on a rail," he said to the Sunday Times, "You have to see it in the shop. And you have always got to see what the competition is doing."

These days, River Island is estimated to be worth £800, a far cry from Lewis' first fruit and vegetable shop he opened 60 years ago.

While the high street seems to be struggling in the wake of a slow Christmas, River Island is going from strength to strength. Like-for-like sales have increased across 200 stores in the past year and the latest accounts files at Companies House who that pre-tax profits rose 47% to £81.5m in 2004.