Entrepreneur Alice Hall has announced ambitious growth plans after taking back ownership of popular fashion business Pink Boutique.

Ms Hall was 23 when she launched Pink Boutique alongside her mother Julie Blackie, investing 拢90 between them on a handful of dresses and then juggling the fledgling firm with other jobs to help pay her mortgage and other bills. The company was soon recruiting staff to help sell hundreds of dresses a day 鈥 peaking at 4,000 dress sales a day 鈥 aiding gross sales of 拢15m while also earning Ms Hall a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list, amongst other award wins.

Three years ago she left Pink Boutique to launch luxury furniture and homeware venture Rowen Homes with her husband Andrew, starting as a purely online venture. It has since built up a large social media presence with more than 1.3million followers, leading to the opening of its first physical store at the Metrocentre, while also working with celebrities including TV presenter Rylan Clark.

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Now Ms Hall has unveiled grand plans for the future of the company that propelled her into the North East business community, after her mother decided to retire. She and her husband announced their future strategy today to the teams at Rowen Homes and Pink Boutique.

She said: 鈥淢y mum decided to retire, so either the business was going to be sold or I took it back on - and I鈥檓 really delighted to come back in. I鈥檝e learned a lot in the last three years in terms of applying things to this business so it鈥檚 all good fun. Andrew is assuming the role of MD and I鈥檓 creative director, and we鈥檙e now splitting our time in half across the two businesses to start with, and we鈥檒l see how it goes.

鈥淭he premises are in Newburn for Pink Boutique and Blaydon for Rowen Homes so just over the river and really close, and a quick win for us is that we can split some overheads in staffing. I鈥檓 bringing some of the qualified people in Rowen to Pink Boutique, as part of knowledge sharing, which will help us scale. And running two e-commerce businesses side by side is going to be really great because you can apply your learnings across both sides.鈥

鈥淭he business has had good recovery from the pandemic, however we鈥檇 like to increase it. It hasn鈥檛 fully recovered to pre-pandemic trading so our focus is around growth and getting the revenue back up, to compete with the bigger brands. Dresses are trading really well and we鈥檝e still got that customer for whom christenings, weddings are really important.鈥

As Rowen Homes has made a successful move to the high street with its bricks-and-mortar base, Ms Hall says she would consider a physical presence for Pink Boutique.

鈥淚鈥檓 not ruling it out, it鈥檚 a harder business model to make work but I do feel that the customer has so little choice on the high street now, so I鈥檓 not definitely ruling that out whether that鈥檚 a concession approach first. There鈥檚 definitely a place for in-person retail but to start with we鈥檙e really going to optimise online and grow it, and maybe in the future that will enable us to do some experiential stuff - there鈥檚 loads of cool stuff we could do in terms of collaborations, and all sorts of fun stuff, but we鈥檒l see where it takes us.

Alice Hall and Julie Blackie, her mother and business partner, at the Pink Boutique HQ
Alice Hall and Julie Blackie when they ran Pink Boutique together, before Alice left to launch Rowen Homes

鈥淚t鈥檚 really important for us to keep things quite stable and get to know the team. There are some people I鈥檝e worked with before and some that are newer, and we just want to make sure that everyone is really enjoying themselves before we scale.

鈥淚 think everyone is really excited. We presented a bit of a strategy and then Andrew and I will be going to meet suppliers. The team has been super receptive and I think we鈥檙e very fortunate because we are very focused on culture at Rowen and that鈥檚 very important in this business as well. It鈥檚 just really nice to have smiling faces and we鈥檝e excited for the next phase.鈥

Julie Blackie 鈥 who has also been a successful TV screenwriter for the likes of Casualty and Hollyoaks 鈥 had been working within property development when her daughter decided to explore interior design, and she sold up renovation project 鈥 the Grade II listed Otterburn Coach House Hotel 鈥 to pave the way for taking over sole ownership of Pink Boutique.

Ms Hall says the deal to take back Pink Boutique will allow her mother to focus more on her passion for property. She added: 鈥淯ltimately she was ready to take a step back. Fashion is a very fast industry and it鈥檚 all consuming and you have to be really into it, and she was ready to have someone run the brand who was more engaged in fashion, so it was a lovely opportunity for me to get back in. I think she will do more property development, the kind of things she loves doing 鈥 restoring period homes back to their former glory.鈥

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