Ann Summers

Infobox_Company
company_name = Ann Summers Ltd
company_
company_type = Private (Ltd)
company_slogan =
foundation = London
location = Whyteleafe, Surrey, CR3 0BZ
key_people = David Gold
Jacqueline Gold(CEO)
num_employees =
industry = Retail
products = Clothing
Adult toys
revenue = £117.3 million (07-08)
£110.9 million (06-07)
£117.4 million (05-06)
£143.3 million (04-05)
£129.9 million (03-04)
£110 million (02-03)
£85 million (01-02)
homepage = http://www.annsummers.com|

Ann Summers is a British chain of High street sex shops.

As an unlicensed sex shop under British law, it means only a small proportion of the available product lines can be sex toys and the range of pornography sold is strictly limited in both volume and content.

History

The company was named after the female secretary (Annice Summers) of the male founder (Caborn Waterfield) [http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,875718,00.html?=rss ,The Guardian, 16 January 2003] . The company has targeted female consumers with the arrival of Jacqueline Gold. Passion8, Stringfellows, Playboy, Beate Uhse AG, Temptations Direct, LoveHoney, Sh! Women's Erotic Emporium and more traditional retailers (Superdrug, Boots [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1333284,00.html ,The Guardian ,22 October 2004] ) / internet sellers (Amazon.com [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/12/amazon_rabbit_mail/ ,The Register, 12 April 2007] ) are some of Ann Summers competitors.

Having worked at Royal Doulton, Jacqueline Gold decided she did not want to go into management, and asked her father David Gold to gain extra work experience. After acquiring the four stores of the "Ann Summers" chain in 1972 with his brother Ralph Gold, they gave Jacqueline at the age of 19 summer work experience in May 1979 - Jacqueline was paid £45 a week, less than the tea lady [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5220856.stm, BBC News, 22 August 2006] .

As her parents had separated when she was 12, Jacqueline was not close to her father. Gold also didn't like the atmosphere at "Ann Summers", which was Gold Group's "up market" clean sex shop. Jacqueline says of her introduction: "It wasn't a very nice atmosphere to work in. It was all men, it was the sex industry as we all perceive it to be."

But a chance visit to a Tupperware-style fashion party in an east London flat in 1981 changed everything - Jacqueline saw the potential of selling sexy lingerie and sex toys to women in the privacy of their own homes. Jacqueline launched the Ann Summers Party Plan - a home marketing plan for sex toys, with a strict "no men allowed" policy. These parties were and remain immensely popular, providing women with an excuse to meet for a party and talk about sex, and have entered British popular culture. They also provided the company with a way of circumventing the law which limited their presentation space for sex toys [http://www.zyra.org.uk/annsummers.htm Ann Summers ] ] .

Jacqueline was made Chief Executive of the company in 1987. Jacqueline transformed the chain into a multi-million pound business, with a sales force today of over 7,500 women as party organisers; 139 [http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=930&id=1332112007 ,The Scotman, 22 August 2007] high street stores in the UK, Ireland, Channel Islands and Valencia,Spain; with an annual turnover of £110 million in 2006/7http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/21/cnann121.xml, Telegraph, 21 August 2007] . In 1999 the chain relaunched its website, and in 2000 it acquired the five stores of the "Knickerbox" brand [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/699230.stm ,BBC News, 3 April 2000] and its range of premium site lingerie kiosks - "Knickerbox" concessions are now in every Ann Summers store.

Although the chain still has a number of licensed sex shops in Bristol and London selling a wide range of adult DVDs, Jacqueline has described the latest award-winning new store concept as: "Wonderful! Every time I walk in, it feels as if I‘m entering an intimate, sexy and very girly boudoir. I just love it." [http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/article/07/11/2006/building_a_brand.html]

The company's head office was raided as part of an immigration check in 2004, consequently 15 staff were arrested and 10 were subsequently deported [http://icsurreyonline.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0800redhillandreigate/tm_objectid=14957104&method=full&siteid=50101&headline=immigration-raid-on-staff-at-sex-aid-hq-name_page.html#story_continue ,Croydon Advertiser, 9 December 2004] . The company employs a series of celebrity models to show off its lingerie, who presently include Kate Lawler, Nancy Sorrell and Emma B.

After a number of years of falling sales and profits, sales have increased back to 2005 / 2006 levels of £117m [http://www.drapersonline.com/news/2008/02/ann_summers_cofounder_steps_back.html, Drapers, 28 Feb 2008] and profits to £3m, up from £1.53m pre-tax for the period 2006/7 [http://www.fmwf.com/newsarticle.php?id=1374&cat=5, Financial Mail Women's Forum, 26 August 2007] . Previously profits had doubled to £9.5m in 2001/2 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/business/2117823.stm ,BBC News, 9 July 2002] , £8.9m in 2002/3 [http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=930&id=553112004 ,The Scotsman, 15 May 2004] ,falling to £3.2m in 2003/4 [http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=192102005 ,The Scotsman, 20 February 2005] - following investment in a new building and technology, dropping further to £2.2M in 2004/5 [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article708255.ece ,Times Online, 23 April 2006] .
Ann Summers lingerie factory in Portsmouth closed in 2005, with over 50 redundancies [http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/biz/Jobs-fear-at-saucy-lingerie.1215807.jp ,The Portsmouth News, 7 October 2005] .Other parts of Gold Group International(GGI), the parent company have been sold, such as Gold Air, which is now owned by Air Partner [ [http://www.davidgold.co.uk/business/daily-telegraph.html David Gold - Daily Telegraph ] ] , along with a large number of Birmingham City F.C. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/birmingham_city/6900404. stm, BBC News, 16 July 2007] (which followed Birmingham's return from relegation [http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/tm_objectid=16810895&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=this-is-the-most-important-battle-of-my-life-says-david-gold-name_page.html, The Mirror, 14 March 2006] and lower than expected profits [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/birmingham_city/6682979.stm, BBC News, 23 May 2007] ) and a management buyout of a leading publishing business [http://www.growingbusiness.co.uk/06959143453722207809/david-gold-gold-group-international.html ,Growing Business, October 2005] [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=438444&in_page_id=1879&cid=0&ei=6F_iRb7yLL7QHPP0jXo ,Daily Mail ,26 Feb 2007] . GGI was part owner of the Sunday Sport [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2224869.ece, Times Online, 9 August 2007] prior to its sale.

Controversy

Due to the adult nature of the stores, Ann Summers has faced a lot of opposition, both legal and social. For example, when attempting to open a new store in Tunbridge Wells [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/england/kent/4189176.stm ,BBC News, 26 August 2005] , they were accused of degrading marriage [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5220856.stm Family fortunes Ann Summers style, BBC News, 22 August 2006. Retrieved 22 August 2006.] . In 2003, they won a legal battle to advertise for employees in job centres [http://business.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=930&id=672582003 ,Scotsman, 18 June 2003] and an ASA complaint was rejected [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/2930525.stm 'Hotbot' adult poster banned, BBC News, 9 April 2003. Retrieved 31 May 2006.] .

Additionally, Ann Summers in Perth was forced to close after the local people complained about the store (mostly from parents embarrassed by questions raised by their children) which also led to other problems with the store. [http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/feed/tm_method=full%26objectid=18409874%26siteid=64736-name_page.html ,Sunday Mail, 7 Jan 2007] Perth was originally the only UK town where an Ann Summers store failed to take off [http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/opinion/mailopinion/tm_method=full%26objectid=18412863%26siteid=64736-name_page.html ,Sunday Mail ,7 Jan 2007] . However, in May 2007 the Middleton Grange, Teesside store which opened in November 2005 was closed after less than two years of trading due to poor sales [http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news?articleid=2877476 ,Hartlepool Mail, 15 May 2007] .

In 2002, the company was hit with a number of problems including the theft of some of its internal IT systems [http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/news/2117858/anne-summers-offers-reward, Computing, 5 March 2002] and a recall of its best selling vibrator [ [http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=24185 ::: u.tv ::: ] ] . The company received a letter of complaint from Buckingham Palace, due to a non endorsed advert featuring the Queen [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/jun/26/advertising.themonarchy ,The Guardian, 26 June 2002] .

In 2003, the company's payments to party organisers were investigated and discussed by a number of media sources [http://money.guardian.co.uk/work/wageslaves/story/0,,892659,00.html ,The Guardian, 9 February 2003] .

In 2004, two complaints were upheld by the ASA [http://www.asa.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/4DCA7C6C-61C4-4836-810D-07DFD178D6ED/0/ASA_Annual_Report_2004.pdf ,ASA Annual Report 2004] . The ASA decided that the first ad was degrading to women, offensive and unsuitable for use as a poster. In the second case the ASA ruled that the use of a nursery rhyme was likely to attract the attention of children and that the advertisement was unsuitable for the medium in which it appeared.

In 2006 Muslim groups complained about the release of a blow up doll named Mustafa Shag, claiming that the doll was offensive to Muslims as Mustafa was one of the names given to the Prophet Mohamed. [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article344202.ece, Independent, 9 February 2006]

In 2007, the company faced legal issues with Apple Inc due to its release of an electronic add-on to music players called the iGasm. The company has not backed down despite cease and desist orders by Apple. [http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=18110] . Also, a former director, who is now a Beate Uhse AG employee [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2372027.stm ,30 October 2002] is pursuing a libel claim against Jacqueline Gold [ [http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx?issue=13002007091600000000001001&page=8&article=cc897791-4557-4506-8451-2dc4385745e6&key=Xp7m6GUcZW3qiK+3JssRFA=&feed=rss PressDisplay.com - Newspapers From Around the World ] ] . A recent advert was banned from the tube. [http://www.thelondonpaper.com/cs/Satellite/london/news/article/1157148733429?packedargs=aid%3D1157148733429%26suffix%3DArticleController ,The London Paper, 23 August 2007]

Trivia

The Ann Summers store in Liverpool city centre is the former home of Beatles manager Brian Epstein's record store NEMS.

Notes

# The jacquelinegold.com and company websites are contradictory - the former saying that a web presence was established in 1999, the latter in 1997.

References

External links

* [http://www.annsummers.com/ Ann Summers website]
* [http://www.annsummers.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/categorydisplay1_40151_10238_-1_10001_Y_10238/ Ann Summers Uncut website]
* [http://www.knickerbox.co.uk/ Knickerbox website]
* [http://www.jacquelinegold.com/ Jacqueline Gold website]
* [http://www.ggi.co.uk/ Gold Group International website]
* [http://www.davidgold.co.uk/ David Gold website]