However, in May 2007 the Middleton Grange, Hartlepool store which opened in November 2005 was closed after less than two years of trading due to poor sales. Perth was originally the only UK town where an Ann Summers store failed to take off. Īdditionally, Ann Summers in Perth, Scotland, 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. In the second case the ASA ruled that the use of a reference to the nursery rhyme " Ride a Cock Horse" was likely to attract the attention of children and that the advertisement was unsuitable for the medium in which it appeared.Īn Ann Summers lingerie factory in Portsmouth closed in 2005, with over 50 redundancies. The ASA decided that the first ad was degrading to women, offensive and unsuitable for use as a poster. In 2004, two complaints were upheld by the ASA. In 2003, the company's payments to party organisers were discussed by a number of media sources. The company received a letter of complaint from Buckingham Palace, due to a non-endorsed advertisement featuring the Queen. They have also encountered opposition to their advertising. For example, in 2003, they won a legal battle to advertise for employees in job centres and an ASA complaint was rejected. Controversy ĭue to the adult nature of the business, Ann Summers has frequently faced opposition, both legal and social. It can also involve the perusal of a catalogue, and often there are party games. The Ann Summers parties include the presentation of sex toys and lingerie in the informal setting of someone's home, usually the home of one of the attendees. 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. ![]() 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.
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