Male mannequin wearing Saint George's cross thong in Ann Summers store window display during 2006 World Cup, Soho, London
Ann Summers is the most successful 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. The company was named after the female secretary of the male founder and has always targeted female consumers. 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[1]. 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." The company's logo until 2004. 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[2]. Jacqueline was made a director of the company in 1987, and in 1993 became Managing Director. Jacqueline transformed the chain into a multi-million pound business, with a sales force today o
Size: 3437px × 4920px
Location: Soho, London
Photo credit: © Philip Bigg / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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