In 1991 it took just two words - "total crap" - from then chairman Gerald Ratner, who was describing one of the company's products, to torpedo consumer confidence and bring it to the brink of bankruptcy.

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Okay, so technology was pretty much crap compared to what we take for granted today, especially when it came to the computational power required to get to the moon and back.

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While it is true that the name is widely recognised in the jewellery trade, it is often associated with Mr Ratner's dismissal of one of his own products as "crap" in 1991.

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Townsend is clearly aware that he going to take a certain amount of crap for making this call, so he spends no little time in the report explaining his position, particularly as it comes on the eve of the first anniversary of the death of Steve Jobs.

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