ABSTRACT
IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE launch, there was presssure to extend outside London. Gordon Roddick recommended to John that any expansion should be with local partners. John says:
‘We had to offer a kind of franchise relationship. We didn’t have the manpower, the skills or the money. The Big Issue was loaded down with activity. I had to meet all the contenders from around Britain, and also from around the world. It was dispiriting, as many of them demanded more than we could deliver.’
