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Ann Summers

Overview, company details, product information, news, events, rankings and Party Organiser listings for Ann Summers.

Active, no longer direct sales

Last verified Saturday, October 24, 2026

Ann Summers Current Status and History

Ann Summers is a British retailer of lingerie, sex toys, and adult products headquartered at Gold Group House in Whyteleafe, Surrey.

Ann Summers was founded in 1971 and later acquired by brothers David and Ralph Gold in 1972 after the original Ann Summers fell into liquidation.

In the early 1980s Jacqueline Gold, David Gold's daughter, conceived the Ann Summers party, in which women hosted home parties to view lingerie and adult products.

Jacqueline Gold led the business as chief executive and later executive chairman until December 2020. During the Covid pandemic, creditors approved a company voluntary arrangement that moved 25 stores to turnover-based rents, with no store closures or job losses.

David Gold passed in January 2023 and Jacqueline Gold passed in March 2023. Vanessa Gold assumed the role of chair and managing director, and Maria Hollins became chief executive. Following losses, including a pre-tax loss of GBP 13.1 million for the year ended June 2024, a Gold family entity provided a GBP 5 million loan in 2024. In late 2024 the family explored options that could include a partial or majority sale.

The company remains family-owned, trades from roughly 80 stores in the UK and Ireland and online, and relaunched the Knickerbox lingerie brand online in July 2024. For the year ended June 2025 it reported turnover of GBP 93.4 million and a pre-tax loss of about GBP 3 million.

For more than forty years, Ann Summers sold through independent Party Organisers, typically women who held home parties and earned commission on the products they sold.

The average commissions were roughly 23 percent on party sales, a 30 percent discount on products, a starter kit valued at GBP 375 to GBP 500, hostess rewards of 10 percent of party sales, and team-building opportunities through unit organisers, with incentives such as company cars, holidays, and awards.

In later years the home party channel became known as Connect, and began recruited members as Sisterhood Ambassadors, with the incentive to earn a minimum of 25 percent commission on their personal sales plus their teams.

Ann Summers closed the Connect direct-selling channel in October 2025. Ann Summers now sells only through its stores and websites and no longer operates a direct-selling business.

It operates an affiliate program through which publishers earn a 10% commission on referred online sales.

Income Disclosures:

Npros was unable to find a published income disclosure for Ann Summers.

In April 2023 the UK Advertising Standards Authority considered 19 complaints that an Ann Summers lingerie television advertisement sexualised and objectified women and was inappropriately scheduled. The ASA did not uphold the complaints, finding the ad was not irresponsible or harmful and that its scheduling restriction away from children's programming was sufficient.

Ann Summers does not appear on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's October 2021 Notice of Penalty Offenses list concerning money-making opportunities or on the April 2023 list concerning product-claim substantiation.

Company timeline

  1. 1971 The first Ann Summers shop opens at Marble Arch, London, on December 10, 1971, and Ann Summers Ltd is incorporated the same day.
  2. 1972 The original business goes into voluntary liquidation, and brothers David and Ralph Gold buy the brand, its two shops, and its outstanding debt for £10,000.
  3. 1981 Jacqueline Gold launches the Ann Summers Party Plan, which uses Tupperware-style home parties where women sell lingerie and adult products.
  4. 1993 Jacqueline Gold becomes chief executive of Ann Summers.
  5. 2020 On December 23, 2020, creditors approve a company voluntary arrangement that moves 25 of the 91 stores to turnover-based rents, with no store closures planned. The arrangement is completed in February 2022.
  6. 2021 The Party Plan channel is rebranded as The Sisterhood, later called Connect, and its sellers are recruited as ambassadors.
  7. 2022 In a leadership reshuffle, Vanessa Gold is named CEO, Maria Hollins becomes sole managing director, and Jacqueline Gold moves to executive chair.
  8. 2023 Co-owner David Gold dies in January, and Jacqueline Gold dies on March 16. Vanessa Gold becomes chair, and Maria Hollins becomes chief executive.
  9. 2025 In October 2025, Ann Summers closes Connect, its home-party direct-selling channel, after more than 40 years. From then on it sells only through stores, its websites, and partners.

Executive Team

Vanessa Gold, Chair

Maria Hollins, Chief Executive Officer

Jacqueline Gold, Former Chief Executive and Executive Chairman (died 2023)

David Gold, Former Chairman and Co-Owner (died 2023)

Ralph Gold, Former Co-Owner

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Related companies and people

These people and companies appear in the public record around Ann Summers:

  • David Gold — Acquired Ann Summers with his brother Ralph Gold in 1972 after the original Ann Summers fell into liquidation; later chairman and co-owner (died January 2023).
  • Ralph Gold — Acquired Ann Summers with his brother David Gold in 1972; former co-owner.
  • Jacqueline Gold — Conceived the Ann Summers home party in the early 1980s and led the business as chief executive and later executive chairman; David Gold's daughter (died March 2023).
  • Gold family — Owns Ann Summers, which remains family-owned; a Gold family entity provided a GBP 5 million loan in 2024.
  • Vanessa Gold — Assumed the role of chair after David and Jacqueline Gold died in 2023.
  • Maria Hollins — Became chief executive officer after 2023.

Sources

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