Ivan Epstein looks the same now as he did when I first met him 15 years ago: thin and wiry, alert and always a little guarded, with hair that’s flecked with grey. The conversation hasn’t changed much either, as he talks of colleagues from the past who are still his colleagues of the present. All that’s changed is the name of his company, switching from Softline to Sage to reflect the fact that the company Epstein founded was acquired by the London-listed Sage group in 2003.

There were some turbulent times over the years, with Softline enjoying phenomenal growth, listing with a bang, dropping with a clang when the dotcom bubble burst, a failed management buy-back, and then its acquisition by Sage.