Gerald Ratner once jokingly referred to one of his company's sherry decanters as 'total crap' As chairman and chief executive of Ratners Jewellery, Gerald Ratner, 71, built his business into the world’s largest jewellery retailer. After he disastrously joked about the brand in a speech at the Royal Albert Hall in 1991, the company suffered huge financial losses and was renamed the Signet Group in 1993. He bounced back to launch a successful gym and online jewellery store. He lives in Berkshire with his wife, Moira, and has four children. Were you born into money? My paternal grandfather started the family jewellery business in the 1940s. Ratners Jewellery later owned 25 shops across the Home Counties.