Ann Summers cuts jobs as family owners pump in £5m to loss-making chain

The lingerie and adult toy retailer, Ann Summers, is trimming its workforce amid challenging high street conditions and further financial losses, with a lifeline of millions being injected by its family owners.

The company has made a "small number" of redundancies within its 1,000 plus staff to cut costs. It’s believed that up to 30 roles, predominantly at the head office level, have been affected, while the retail staff across 80 outlets remain untouched.

The brand's chief executive, Maria Hollins, commented: "All retailers are under significant pressure with continuing high taxation and rising costs. We have ambitious plans for growth and are always looking at options to bolster the brand in both the UK and internationally, but we also need to ensure our cost base reflects the challenges of today’s high street. As a result, we have taken action to reduce costs, which unfortunately included making a small number of colleagues redundant. This was not a decision we took lightly."

This follows the £5m funding the business received from Green Street Holdings—owned by the Gold family, including the new chairwoman Vanessa Gold after the passing of her sister and Ann Summers founder Jacqueline Gold.

Despite these measures the retailer posted pre-tax losses of £3.8m for the year ending July 1, 2023, showing an improvement from a loss of £21.9m the previous year, according to recent accounts. The company saw a 4.5% rise in turnover to £104.5m with a 3.4% increase in like-for-like sales, defying the retail sector's broader challenges.

Founder Jacqueline Gold passed away in 2023 at the age of 62, following a seven-year battle with breast cancer. The lingerie entrepreneur was awarded a CBE in the 2016 New Year Honours for her contributions to entrepreneurship, women in business, and social enterprise.

Her sister Vanessa described her as "a trailblazer, a visionary and the most incredible woman" after her passing. In the company's full-year results released in March, Ms Hollins stated: "The loss of Jacqueline has been immeasurable to us and our colleagues, but we, together with Vanessa Gold our executive chair, remain determined to continue her legacy and ensure the growth and success of Ann Summers for the future."

This came just months after the passing of family patriarch and shareholder David Gold.