![]() ![]() There were around 4,000 Ann Summers parties every week in the UK in 2003. Initially, the Ann Summers parties were as much a way of circumventing regulations restricting the display of sex toys as they were a marketing tactic, but their popularity quickly grew and Ann Summers now employs over 7,500 Party Organisers, coordinated from the Head Office in Surrey. Jacqueline Gold initiated the Party Plan concept in 1981. The stores sell two million Rampant Rabbits, a kind of vibrator exclusive to Ann Summers, per year. The shops offer lingerie, underwear, cosmetics, swimwear and sex toys. The retail operations for all of Ann Summers' shops are managed from their Head Office in Whyteleafe, Surrey and, as of December 2010, Ann Summers operated 144 retail outlets across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and Spain. In 1981, David Gold installed his daughter Jacqueline Gold (who was the Executive Chair of Ann Summers) and she introduced the Party Plan concept. The first Ann Summers shop was opened in 1970 in Marble Arch, London, from which it grew to six shops.Īnn Summers was purchased in 1971 by brothers Ralph and David Gold, who turned it from a standard sex shop into an established high street brand and lingerie boutique. However, in 2014 they announced plans to sell the brand. In 2000, Ann Summers acquired the underwear brand Knickerbox for an undisclosed sum. ![]() She went to live in Umbria, Italy, two hours from Rome, and died of cancer in October 2012. She left the company soon after it opened, following a row with Caborn-Waterfield. The company was named after Annice Summers, the female secretary of the male founder, Michael Caborn-Waterfield.Īnnice Summers was born Annice Goodwin in 1941, but later took her stepfather's surname. The chain had an annual turnover of £117.3 million in 2007–2008. In 2000, Ann Summers acquired the Knickerbox brand, a label with an emphasis on more comfortable and feminine underwear, while the Ann Summers-labelled products tend to be more erotic in style. But, before you rush out to the nearest store, a warning: in this age of air safety scares, watch out where you take those sex toys.Ann Summers is a British multinational retailer company specialising in sex toys and lingerie, with 80 high street stores in the UK, Ireland, and the Channel Islands. ![]() With a bit of help from her father (who is chairman of Ann Summers' parent company as well as Birmingham City football club) her empire now stretches as far as Dubai, Mecca and Coventry.ġ0. And Jacqueline Gold isn't stopping there. From humble beginnings back in 1972, its clientele has shifted and women now make up more than two thirds of its customers purchasing everything from the intriguing " economy stag bag" to virtual valentine's cards.ĩ. Ann Summers has changed with the times, too, reflecting the sex toy industry's shift from seedy to stylish. Lingerie sellers Agent Provocateur and Covent Garden's Coco de Mer, run by Body Shop founder Anita Roddick's daughter Sam, are leading the way.Ĩ. Gone are the days of red faces and brown paper bags, as seedy, male-dominated sex shops are being replaced with brightly-lit, trendy erotic boutiques aimed at women.ħ. The UK seems to be losing its prudish " No Sex Please, We're British" reputation. Her celebrity was sealed with a tasteful spread in OK! Magazine, an appearance on the TV show Back to the Floor and a 1995 book, imaginatively entitled Good Vibrations: the True Story of Ann Summers.Ħ. Ms Gold has become almost as famous as her products. Ann Summers' glamorous chief executive, Jacqueline Gold, is convinced that surging sales are down to the British public's improved attitude to sex.ĥ. Which must be a bit of a shock for those who land there by accident while searching for another Ann Summers - and Puff her geriatric poodle.Ĥ. ![]()
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