HAMISH MCRAE: All workers are key to speed of Covid recovery

We have to get everyone back to work. This is not simply an economic and financial imperative, though it is certainly both of those. It is vital for our wellbeing, our general health, the welfare of our children and for many more reasons. 

Eventually, the growing ranks of vaccines will contain and hopefully crush the virus. Good news on that front from Johnson & Johnson and Novavax last week, and let’s also acknowledge the impressive progress the UK has made with its roll-out. 

But the vaccines are initially distributed to those most at risk, the elderly, most of whom are retired. That is the correct policy, but it means the broad mass of people in the workforce will not be vaccinated until the summer. 

Speed is the key: The broad mass of people in the workforce will not be vaccinated until the summer

It may be possible to offer vaccines to groups of key workers more speedily. But in a sense every worker is key to the revival of the economy and until the summer the only path to normality will be extensive and immediate testing in the workplace and elsewhere. The testing initiative described on these pages is important and must now be rolled out more widely. 

The key is speed. The Government has sketched a broad path for reopening the economy. The full lockdown will probably last until March 9, but pubs and restaurants may not open until June. As for foreign travel, who knows? 

We will see a strong overall bounce though in the second quarter, but it will be an uneven, disorganised one. For many service businesses there will be no bounce at all until well into the summer. So the challenge will be to bring forward the pace at which businesses can safely reopen. 

Government policy needs to be sensitive to what actually works. People are understandably confused by changing rules as to what they can and cannot do. So when the rules are eased, there will have to be clearer guidelines. We are not there yet, so there is a little time to plan. With the swift roll-out of the vaccines and extensive testing, the UK is well positioned to escape its present straitjacket. We have to get the exit strategy right. 

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Who would have thought that a business making boots was worth £3.7billion? The public float of Dr Martens, a brand fondly remembered by the grandparents who stomped in their Docs to hear Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell on the Isle of Wight in 1970, is the most valuable launch in London since September. 

Trading on Friday saw the price shoot up by more than a quarter, making a huge profit for the private equity group Permira, which bought it from the Griggs family for £300million back in 2014. The family still owned some of the shares, so do not feel too sorry for them. 

There are three powerful stories here. One is about the power of a brand. Klaus Märtens was a German army officer in the Second World War, who just afterwards developed cushionsoled boots. With partners this became a thriving business. 

Patent rights were bought by R. Griggs, and the UK version was introduced as Dr Martens (without the umlaut) in 1960. The rest is not quite history, but the boots were the right product for the disruptive British youth of the 1960s.

Storytwo is about management. Dr Martens has had a bumpy ride, nearly going under in 2003, and having to switch production to Asia to hold down costs. Brands have to be tended carefully if they are to keep their iconic status, but hold their prices at a level where they can still make money. Permira seems to have succeeded, and encouragingly retains a 43 per cent stake in the business. 

And story three? That is about the basics of investment. We are in a frenzied market. There have been something like 24 ‘unicorns’ – public floats of companies valued at more than $1billion – around the world in the past month. Most are high-tech, for that is what the market wants. Doc Martens is the reverse. 

So ask yourself this. In a few years’ time, when the grandchildren of the 1970s pop festival devotees are striding off to a revamped Glastonbury, what shares would you rather own?

The company that made their boots, or a start-up that a decade earlier had thought of some new fintech app for a mobile phone? Dr Martens will still be around. Who knows what will happen to the majority of the high-tech start-ups?