Ann Summers: ‘A Destination Store for Discerning Shoppers’

Ann Summers bills itself as a “a destination store for all discerning shoppers.” Its adult genre product lines include lubes and aphrodisiacs, “hen and stag night,” bondage, books and DVDs, lingerie, sex toys, “dressing up” and “fun stuff.”

Headquartered in the UK, Ann Summers has a chain of retail stores in England and Ireland, and is known for booking product parties for women only. Customers in the United States have access to the company’s full product line through the Web site at www.annsummers.com.

The story of company Chief Executive Jacqueline Gold is an interesting one, on the road to becoming one of Britain’s most successful businesswomen. According to the company Web site, she’s become known as the “woman responsible for bringing sex to the high street.”

Jacqueline’s had no formal business training, by her own admission, but it’s turned out to be her strength.

“The best piece of advice I could ever give,” she is quoted as saying on the company Web site, “is to be true to yourself.” “As a woman, you should never compromise your femininity or create an aggressive stereotype in order to emulate your male counterparts – it’s not necessary.”

At the age of 21, Jacqueline’s inspiring business journey began. She saw the potential in taking lingerie and sex toys to women in their homes, while working at her father’s business, and created the Ann Summers Party.

Before being made Chief Executive in 1987 and creating an empire run by women, for women, Jacqueline learned the hard way, working her way through the ranks.

Ann Summers now boasts a sales force of more than 7,500 women as party organizers, and now has more than 130 high street stores in the UK, Ireland, and the Channel Islands and one in Spain. Another five branches of Ann Summers opened across the UK in 2008.

Now one of highstreets most successful brands, Knickerbox had losses of £5m when Jacqueline bought it in February 2000.

The takeover of Knickerbox added another 26 stores to the Ann Summers’ group, plus franchises in Ireland, Iceland and Denmark.