The Ann Summers party plan is one of the greatest success stories in British retailing history. The "passion and fashion" retailer, acquired by Bristol-based brothers David and Ralph Gold in 1972, arrived in London with a lone lingerie shop in Soho.
David Gold's daughter, Jacqueline, joined the company in 1979 and pitched the now world famous party plan concept in 1981. She launched her ambitious plan for a nationwide party plan network with a single advertisement in the local press - and the response was phenomenal.
Ann Summers party plan now has 7500 party organisers in the UK, including 650 in London, who host about 4000 parties each week. The company has a gross annual turnover of £85 million.
Sam McCarthy, Ann Summers party plan organiser, says the success of the concept hinges on its ability to remove the "intimidation factor" from a potentially daunting experience - buying risqué lingerie and sex toys.
"The reason Ann Summers works is because people are more comfortable in their own home," Sam says. "By the end of the party these women are asking me questions I believe they wouldn't ask a sales assistant in a shop.".
Sam advises designers and manufacturers considering launching a party plan scheme focus heavily on the training of the party hosts who will represent their label or brand. "You'll have to work on their appearance and they way they talk to people. It's important the girls know what they're aiming for," she says.
She believes Ann Summers party plan has proved so lucrative for its parent company because it sets achievable targets and offers incentives for organisers, which ensures their loyalty to the company.
Organisers pay £2.50 per week to hire their party kit, which contains about £350 worth of merchandise, from head office. When they have banked sales of £1000, they are no longer required to make kit repayments. Organisers pay 70 per cent of their sales to Ann Summers, with a minimum requirement of £1600 per month - an attainable target considering the average sales tally is about £250 per party.
Yet this summer much mayhem has happened, people are being accused and killed when they have done nothing wrong. ... Ann Putnam and several other girls testified that Rebecca Nurse" ghost would drift into their rooms at night. ... And why did Ann Putnam make accusations against Rebecca Nurse? ...
The landscapes share similarities as well since both John and Ann (The Painted Door), and, Paul and Ellen (A Lamp at Noon) both live on farmland on the prairies. ... There are only two main differences in the settings of each book that contradict the similarities, and those are that the stories take place during two different seasons (winter and summer). ... John and Ann deal with the cold winter storm, while Paul and Ellen have to work through issues during a long sand storm. ...
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was a devoted wife, a volunteer in charitable organizations, a mother of five children, an educator, and a spiritual leader. ... Her real name was Elizabeth Ann Bayley and she was the daughter of a notable Episcopal family. ... During the summer, Elizabeth and her children went to live with her father, but he too became plagued by yellow fever. ... Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first American-born saint and was canonized on September 14, 1975. ... The church which we celebrated in was breath taking and I enjoyed walking the grounds of Mother Elizabeth An...
Her love for her husband was like Barret Browning's "How Do I Love Thee" Ann Bradstreet's "To My Dear and Loving Husband" and William Shakespeare's "Shall I compare Thee to a Summer's Day?... Shakespeare's "Shall I compare Thee to a Summer's Day?... He writes, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? ... " (l. 1-2) The speaker tries to differentiate his beloved and the summer. ... (Wadsworth 505) Summer represents heat and compare're his lover's beauty to the summer and how his lovers remaining youthfulness a...
As the time went on more people started to complain of witchcraft including, Ann Putnam the daughter of John Putnam. ... During the summer of 1692 trials started to take place. ... Ann Putnam claimed that Burroughs bewitched soldiers during a failed military attack. ...
Frank had fallen in love with Mary Ann who was in the process of divorcing her husband Richard Strout. ... Another problem that bothered her was the fact that Mary Ann was four years older than Frank. ... The way Ruth felt about Frank and Mary Ann's relationship shows her view on what she feels is right. ... Then he looked at the boys and Mary Ann, and went home to wait for the police." (88). ... One thing that caught Matt's attention, " hung a colorful photograph of Mary Ann and the two boys sitting on a lawn- there was no house in the picture-Mary Ann smiling at the camera or S...
Around this time an English naturalist, Mary Ann Mantall, found a large tooth partly buried in a rock. ... Winter became too cold and summers became too hot for dinosaurs to survive. ... They probably had difficulty cooling off in the summer thus, death and extinction came as a result of the changes in climate. ...
The Holocaust Ann frank History has had a great influence on art, whether it's literature, theatre or cinema. ... In the Auschwitz concentration camp in the summer of 1941, 250 hospital patients and 600 Russian prisoners of war were forced into a sealed room and killed with a poison gas called Zyklon B. ...