Affable and immaculately attired in a tweed three-piece suit, Giles Fuchs is the quintessential English gentleman. Donning an impressive moustache, he could in fact pass off as a Terry Thomas lookalike, were it not for the fact that he lacks the beloved actor’s trademark caddishness.

When I mention his sartorial tastes, he points to his shoes. “I love a Jeffery-West shoe, what can I tell you? If you're going to do a job, do it well,” he laughs.

The Burgh Island Hotel, which he bought in 2018, is very much part of that ‘Fuchs’ brand’ aesthetic. When you step inside you also step back in time.

Everything from the elaborate glass ceiling, the vertical radiators serving as lamp columns, the period furniture and stylized motifs shout Art Deco at you. Less so the clunky sailing ship add-on, but the captain’s cabin from HMS Ganges was added in the 1930s.

The hotel’s architecture harks back to a time when people wore fedoras and tiaras while being served copious quantities of Pimm’s on the lawn. Why, even Agatha Christie stayed at the hotel and used it as a retreat to write two of her novels.

“I wasn't actually looking for a hotel when we bought this, but I would only buy something at the higher end because I do like the glamour. I'm very shallow, what can I tell you!” he jokes.

Perched on a tiny tidal island half a mile off Bigbury-on-Sea, the setting is undeniably romantic, should the urge take you. A one-night stay can set you back from just under £400 to £1,200, depending on the room, but Mr Fuchs is at pains to stress that anyone can enjoy the Burgh Island Hotel experience.

In contrast to the previous owner’s apparent disdain for the ‘natives’ - he apparently banned locals from visiting the hotel unless they booked a room - anyone can now have a meal or a drink as long as they call in advance.

The ‘Giles Fuchs story’ has been widely documented. From having failed his A-levels (except in English, as he likes to remind you) he began working at a real estate agents at the age of 21 after bullishly introducing himself as “the best negotiator you ever had”. A year later, he set up his own firm.

“I’ve always worked harder than anyone else I'm in an office with, so when I became an estate agent I worked from eight to eight, seven days a week for about two or three years. Then, on my third year, I had enough money to start my own estate agency...and I worked even longer.”

He puts his work ethic down to his “mother’s gene”, and his only failing is to have a short attention span. He’s now the director of a string of companies – roughly 10 at the last count - dedicated mostly to real estate and property management.

There’s also his drinks firm, Gunner Cocktails, which is more of a pet project (“it’s my baby but it’s not making a profit”), despite the excellence of the product, as my editor and I can readily testify.

In 2009, together with his sister Niki, he launched Office Space in Town (OSIT), which went on to become one of the UK’s leading flexible workplace providers. And in line with his aesthetic taste, the rooms are lavishly decorated to a fault.

The story goes that he unsuccessfully tried to sell the hotel in 2023 for £15m before taking it off the market last year.

But he was originally just one of a group of investors and then decided to go it alone when the deal fell through.

“Our plan at that point was to buy out the other investors because we own 67 per cent of it, anyway,” he explains. “When it came to it, we didn't have the money to buy the rest of them out, so it had to go on the market. 
If it had gone through, I would have been happy, but I'm happier it didn't.”

Thanks to the healthy state of his other businesses he had a rethink and decided, together with his sister, “to turn the hotel into the thing that we always hoped it would be”.

One of the first things he’s done since taking over fully is to interview job applicants personally. He also houses employees at a converted care home he bought, aware of the difficulties staff face to find accommodation in such a remote area.

“I am sure lots of people say different things about why they're successful, but if you start with the staff that’s the most important thing. What you really want to do is retain your staff - that journey starts when you first advertise the job.

“I don't think you have to be ruthless in business. I mean, you have to make the right decisions, so if someone's misbehaving, if they nick money, they’ve got to go,” he adds, almost as an afterthought.

In 2021, when he experienced staff shortages he ‘rolled up his sleeves’ and took to washing up the dishes for two weekends. He also insists that any development plans are run past the local community first. If they are rejected, he says he’s happy to drop them.

Next month, the hotel will play host to a net-zero conference for the second time just as climate sceptics appear to be growing in number, and with energy costs soaring. Is being green becoming a harder sell?

“We help the environment where we can,” he says, but “never at the expense of the business”, although the hotel’s fitted with solar panels and local produce is bought whenever possible.

The South Hams faces other challenges too in the shape of housing shortages, a problem he believes is linked to jobs.

“Part of the problem in the South Hams is that there aren't many jobs, and we're the biggest employer in the area by miles - 75 now and up to 95 (in the summer). Only the people who can afford to be here are the ones who probably have good jobs.

“If you build a load of homes in Bigbury-on-Sea, I'm not sure where they're going to work, unless it’s here. And then you've got the travelling, the car, the carbon footprint and all that.”

Jobs, or the lack of, and a stagnant economy inevitably gives rise to talk about the UK’s exit from the EU, a prickly decision he still defends.

“We’ll never know what would have happened if we hadn't left. I am a Brexiteer and proudly so. The truth about that decision is that I would defend to the death someone's right to be a Remainer, and I would hope they would do the same for me,” he answers, while adding that the country ended up with “the worst of all situations” by not opting for an even harder Brexit.

He considers himself a capitalist, but one who is also a social democrat. So what would he like to see done to grow the economy?

“We need to reduce interest rates,” he states. Suggestions about slapping a one-off wealth task get short thrift, though.

“I'm paying much more tax than most people. I’m happy to do that because I believe in our society, but it’s not about the tax. It's about understanding where we can be more efficient. We take a pound off the tax man and it's worth 50p. For me, that's mad. We need to make sure that's more efficient.”

He is also critical of the farmers’ inheritance tax, saying that only the vast corporations will benefit.

“Farmers are providing essential food. It is a family business and they're working long hours. Footballers get paid millions of pounds a year, why are they not taking money off them?”

Throughout the entire discussion, his disarming smile and amenable nature never abandon him. Perhaps that’s another secret to his success.