This Friday Underlines chats to Dawn Barber,owner of UKTights.com and UKSwimwear.com, who enjoyed a varied career before devoting herself to the world of legwear, lingerie and swimwear. Along the way she has had 4 children and projects a joie de vivre that belies her 61 years. And all this whilst developing the world’s largest lingerie and hosiery store online! This is a lady that gives new meaning to the word ‘hands-on’!
Dawn Barber, MD UK Tights
Life before UKTights.com?
“I worked as a buyer in an electronic company for several years and I had a sales and marketing background so both of these experiences were good grounding. Prior to launching UKTights.com I worked for myself in the CAD industry for 13 years. I was involved as a headhunter in that industry and moved high calibre salespeople around in this vertical market.
My husband and I decided at this stage to go for our fourth child and as it really wasn’t feasible to do that job whilst juggling a tiny baby, he in his role as a full stack developer decided to knock me up a website … and the rest, as they say, is history!
Why the world of legwear (and later swim and lingerie)?
We chose legwear because we felt there was a gap in the market for a good hosiery supplier who would not only supply product but would also champion plus size women. I was the person who put pressure on the hosiery manufacturers to make hosiery that was comfortable and fitted properly instead of just a back panel in a pair of tights. Swimwear and lingerie were then an obvious addition to our business model. We have over 400,000 customers so we have been able to cross market to these people.
50 denier curvy super stretch tights
Those Special Moments in your career?
Special moments have been the day we turned our first million; the day we bought our major competitor; the day we were on the BBC News; the two occasions we’ve won the Stars awards.
Your proudest moment to date?
Gosh, I’ve had so many proud moments within the business but the one that stands out the most must be when we took over our major competitors My Tights. That was a big one. Also, appearing on the BBC news was a big one too. The Boston Consulting Group did a marketing survey for Google, and we came out as the most innovative company in the UK. Take your pick!
A Typical Week…in your life
Typical week consists of me working on average a 60-hour week. I love my job so what’s that saying…if you love what you do, then you never work a day in your life! Well, that’s me. I do all the buying for the company. I do all the design and graphics, I also have financial control of the company as well at looking at other opportunities for us to grow. I have a pretty full week but that’s ok as all members of my family are involved in the business, so we get to see a lot of each other.
Bestselling Brand: Trasparenze
Bestselling Brand: Oroblu
Bestselling Brand: Girardi
If you were not working in this industry, then what do you think you would have done instead?
I would still be in sales and marketing for sure but not so sure about which industry I might be in. I love people so I might still be headhunting and altering the lives of salespeople worldwide. Or perhaps I’d have got into PR. I am well aware of the value of this service. Which is why we now use a successful PR consultancy CiCi PR.
What is your greatest challenge?
As always, trying to grow the business in challenging times. Cash flow is always difficult of course but thankfully, we have some very key suppliers who are patient with us and help us. This enables both them and us to move forward and keep trading happily.
Your biggest mistake?
Not doing it sooner!
The one product you cannot live without?
Why tights of course!
Time out?
I love being with my family, they are everything to me so it’s good that I get a lot of time with them during my working hours as well as my free time. I also love to cook, read, and watch a good movie. Hate scary stuff on screen, my imagination runs wild. My favourite books are psychological thrillers! I like to scare myself half to death just before I go to sleep at night! I also enjoy a good bottle of red wine and the occasional bottle of bubbles!
Pet Hate?
Dislike rude people. No need for it. Courtesy costs nothing as my old mum used to say!
