Before you meet Ray Kelvin, the founder and chief executive of Ted Baker, you already know that he is not your average FTSE boss. A bit of reading on the history of the company tells you that he never shows his face in public, he makes people who are late to meeting do press-ups, and he loves to hug people. A lot.



But after a couple of hours in his company, here are a few more things that stand out about Kelvin – he beat Andy Murray at table tennis three days after the sportsman won Wimbledon, he spends his evenings “in front of the TV farting”, and he constantly plays matchmaker in the office.



His eldest sons, who compare Kelvin to the dad in US sitcom Family Guy, are not even convinced that Kelvin is a chief executive. On a recent visit to Ted Baker’s headquarters – The Ugly Brown Building in Camden – one son asked: “Show me the chap who really did build this business. Come on, it can’t be you, who was it?”