Lifestyle brand Oliver Bonas has been in the news today over Matt Hancock's affair with the communications director of the company, Gina Coladangelo.
Health secretary Hancock today apologised for breaking social distancing rules after pictures emerged of him kissing Coladangelo in the Department of Health offices.
Coladangelo, who is also Hancock's aide, is married to Oliver Bonas founder Oliver Tress.
For those not in the know, Oliver Bonas sells lifestyle items like homeware, women's clothes and furniture, and has a chain of 80 stores across the UK.
How did Oliver Bonas start?
Tress founded the first store aged 25 in 1993, in Fulham Road, London, selling jewellery and handbags he'd picked up when visiting his parents in Hong Kong.
The first store was repainted by Tress and his friends, and he also moonlighted as the cashier - using a second-hand till.
The 'Bonas' part of the name comes from his then-girlfriend Anna Bonas. It was the first high-street store to pay its staff the living wage.
His formula proved a hit, and Oliver Bonas now has more than 80 stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is mostly focused on London and the South East of England.
It now designs and creates its own items for sale, rather than listing those of others, and updates its stock weekly.
It tends to open stores in areas like train stations and airports - but avoids big cities where it could be outgunned by bigger firms.
Oliver James Mark Tress was born in 1967. He went to Wiltshire boarding school Marlborough College before going to Durham University to study anthropology.
Tress has an estimated net worth of around £12million.
Oliver Bonas made a profit of £2.7million in 2019, according to its latest accounts, up from £2.3million in 2018.
He and Coladangelo married in 2009 and have three children, Bruno, Layla and Talia.
The couple live in a five-bed house in Wandsworth, south London, thought to be worth several million pounds.
Coladangelo is also a director at Luther Pendragon, the lobbying company.
Hancock made Coladangelo an unpaid adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care on a six-month contract in March last year.
Labour have demanded Hancock is sacked as Health Secretary over a "charge sheet" that culminated in the incident.
Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said: "If Matt Hancock has been secretly having a relationship with an adviser in his office... it is a blatant abuse of power and a clear conflict of interest.
"The charge sheet against Matt Hancock includes wasting taxpayers’ money, leaving care homes exposed and now being accused of breaking his own Covid rules."
Hancock has said: “I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances. I have let people down and I’m sorry.”
But he is not leaving his post and has been supported by Number 10.
The Prime Minister "accepted the Health Secretary's apology and considers the matter closed", No10 declared today.
