Australia’s legendary retail billionaire, Solomon Lew, is used to getting his way.

No one knows this better than his rivals, like the Myer board which succumbed to his unrelenting multi-year siege and recently bought a bevy of slow-growing clothing brands, such as Just Jeans, from Lew’s Premier Investments group.

Smiggle’s sales have been losing steam and the company remains without a chief executive a year since John Cheston was sacked. Credit: Louie Douvis

The Myer deal left Lew free to focus on the high-growth potential of pyjama brand Peter Alexander, and the planned spin-off of global success story Smiggle into a separately listed group.

If you want to know how that plan is going for Lew, you only needed to listen to this week’s results briefing for Premier Investments.

Lew went off-piste in spectacular fashion, spouting a barrage of fresh allegations related to his sacking of Smiggle boss John Cheston more than a year ago.

Lew’s spray alleged that the group’s ongoing investigation had........

© WA Today