Q&A: Secret Linen Store founders on taking an idea to a business in just six months

Harnessing Harriet Mears’ marketing and management acumen and Molly Freshwater’s design talent when it launched 11 years ago, Secret Linen Store has grown from a tiny family enterprise into a homeware retailer turning over millions.

As the siblings celebrate their freshly awarded B Corp accreditation, they sat down with Retail Week to share the journey so far and their ambitions for the years ahead.

What made you start the business?

Mears: “We both worked in bedroom retail for various high street retailers. I’d left my full-time job because I’d had small kids and my oldest was about to start school, and I thought: ‘How am I possibly going to deal with summer holidays while working full-time?’ I’d gone down to three days a week and Molly had started a sourcing business a couple of years before that. 

“We were both fumbling along doing that and the industry was changing. A lot of retailers we were working with were cutting out the middle-man and going directly to the factory. We had talked for years about potentially starting a business together and we’d had various ideas, from children’s shoes to men’s ties. We even talked about selling umbrellas.

“We had coffee with a previous employer and were sharing those ideas, but he put us straight and said: ‘You need to be doing bed linen.’ We both know it inside out and back to front; Molly’s been designing it for years and years. And then, in a massive whirlwind and essentially six months from having that coffee, we launched Secret Linen Store. 

“We took six months to develop our product range. We worked with factories that Molly had had relationships with for probably nearly 20 years before that point and took them on the journey with us. They were really, really keen to help and work with us in the beginning and get the business up and running.

“We had a small seed investment of just £50,000 when we first started the business. We worked our socks off for six months and launched in the same year.”

How big is the business now?

Mears: “We have 32 employees and we turned over 8 million net sales last year. At the moment, we’re up 22% on that for this year.”

You’re a family business. What’s it like working so closely with your sister? 

Freshwater: “There are many more benefits than there are drawbacks. There are six years between us so, although we obviously grew up together, we didn’t grow up together. We’ve got a better relationship and we’re more like friends than sisters because we weren’t arguing over the cereal in the morning like I was with our middle sister. 

“We trust each other implicitly and we’re very honest. Anything that needs discussing gets discussed and we don’t take it home. Sometimes that can be bad for the team because we’re having an argument in a meeting about whether we like something or whether we agree on what’s right for this customer, etc. The main downside for me is that the last person we want to hang out with at the weekend is each other because we spend all week together.”

Your senior leadership team is primarily made up of women. Tell us more about that. 

Freshwater: “Our senior leadership team is 71% female. I think it creates a really great work group. We didn’t set out to do it and it wasn’t an intentional thing – we employ the right people for the right jobs – but it works really well for us. 

“We all work very well together, we’re all in tune with each other and it’s a real positive because of that. And a group of women are able to solve problems quite easily.”

What are your ambitions for the brand going forward?

Mears: “We are ambitious, but we want to obviously move forward in the most sustainable way. So we’re making sure that growth is balanced between purpose, profitability and business growth.

“We are launching into new category areas and focusing on product. From our B Corp journey perspective, we’re working very hard at the moment on recycling and the circular economy. We think it’s really important that we have an option for our customers to have different streams to be able to move textiles on that have reached end-of-life or are faulty.

“We’re looking at other markets, so there’s an option for international expansion. We’re also focusing on working with marketplaces and other shopping channels, potentially looking at pop-up stores or other sales channels that aren’t within the traditional ecommerce space we are in at the moment.”