Issue 41, July/August 2005

Maternity and children’s wear brand JoJo Maman Bébé is about to take a leap into the unknown. Its founder Laura Tenison has decided it’s time to take on an equity partner. She tells Ian Wallis how she plans to deal with the loss of control and ownership.

Finally after 20 years of working alone as an entrepreneur I’ve decided it would be quite exciting to work with an equity partner.” It’s a major turning point for Laura Tenison, founder of maternity and children’s fashion brand JoJo Maman Bébé.

The mail order company has grown organically and very successfully for the past 12 years. But now Tenison’s keen to up the pace. It’s bound to be an emotional wrench. She still owns 99% of the 120-person company, with a handful of de facto directors taking care of various aspects of the business.

Ultimately though, every decision still goes through her. For a £10m turnover business with 1.2m mail order customers, eight retail outlets and a strong web presence, that’s quite an undertaking and a measure of her influence.

Back in 2003, when Tenison first publicly pondered taking outside investment, she appeared fairly resolute about not wanting to dilute her shareholding. And she made it clear she wasn’t keen on the idea of venture capitalists telling her how to run the business.

Her stance, while understandable and common among entrepreneurs, is clearly not conducive to fast growth via funding. At the time she explored alternatives and eventually realised plans for a conservative retail roll-out. But, unable to take the ultimate plunge, it was painstakingly achieved through cashflow and didn’t commence until late 2004.

There are now standalone stores or concessions in Dundrum near Dublin, London (3), Plymouth, Guildford, Birmingham and a warehouse outlet in Newport. A further five should open by late autumn and after a cooling-off period the next stage, with investment in place in early 2006, should begin.

Starting the process of letting go has much to do with her belief that the brand has potential for 60 outlets and a recognition that such growth will not happen without
compromise.

And not only has the fear of losing control and ownership dissipated, she’s actually been inspired by the recent sale of ski and surf clothing brand Fat Face. It also reached something of a plateau before taking investment to pursue a UK-wide roll-out.

In that case the founders moved aside with investors ISIS Equity Partners placing experienced retail executive Louise Barnes in charge. Nevertheless, they retained a significant portion of the business and are still involved now that ISIS has sold its stake for an estimated £100m to another venture capital outfit.

It’s a model she’s keen to follow in essence, although she’ll almost certainly stop short of handing over the reins.

“It is always hard to let go of a business that one has built up over a period of time through hard graft and personal sacrifice,” she says. “However, over the past two years I have been making very specific moves to distance myself from the running of certain departments. We have established a strong core management structure which ensures this is no longer a one-man band company.”

This acknowledgement that she’s “prepared to share the burden and the glory” makes the chances of an amenable fundraising far greater.