Q&A: Sustainable fashion retailer AYM’s founder Alie Mackintosh

You started the brand 14 years ago, from then to now what’s changed? 

The main difference is that in the beginning, it was just myself without any resources – very scrappy. I started the business while studying product design at St Martin’s in London, teaching myself to sew and pattern make. When an order came in, I’d make it myself from start to finish.

That whole process taught me how all the business processes work, which became crucial when I started hiring and growing. Now I have a team of eight amazing people. We work remotely most of the time with an office in Sussex for occasional meetings.

In my first year, I did just shy of £100,000 revenue. Now we’re hoping to do £8-10 million this year.

You’ve taken a slower approach to growth, why is that? 

I’m glad about the slow growth because we could have grown much quicker if I’d cut corners. Throughout the journey, people said “Why don’t you just manufacture here, or outsource there, or buy cheaper fabrics” – things to minimise costs that would unlock faster growth, but not growth I wanted.

I’ve been stubborn about it. The process has been slower, but I feel that’s been the right way. It’s about taking time and making decisions we feel comfortable with.

You operate primarily on pre-orders. How does that model work in practice?

We’ve basically been on a pre-order model because we haven’t been building stock. For us, if customers want it, we make it. That seems like a really healthy way of building a business because you match supply to demand.

We don’t have stock, which means we don’t have anything we need to push or discount. Obviously when demand spikes, you might not keep up, but that’s a good problem to have in this industry.

We had to close the website for four days in April because we had so much demand and there was a backlog on orders. We didn’t want to take new orders when customers had been patiently waiting for so long. We wanted to fulfill existing orders first.

The reason this happens is we’re committed to keeping price points the same and production in the UK. Typically when balancing supply and demand, you might raise prices to reduce demand, but we don’t want to do that.

How do you manage customer expectations with longer lead times?

Communication has been our priority. Our process isn’t how typical fashion companies work, so it’s a mind shift for consumers. Our customers are used to it now, but it takes getting used to when you’re accustomed to things arriving instantly versus waiting three to four weeks.

We’re looking at building technology to give customers more clarity about what’s happening throughout the process, but those things take time to develop.

“It wasn’t intentional – it’s been a happy accident”

70% of your business is international. How did that happen organically?

It’s been through social media. We don’t geo-locate any of our marketing, so it reaches customers who want it. Our clothing has appeal to an American audience, and it just naturally happened.

For a small company, shipping internationally is expensive, so it wasn’t intentional – it’s been a happy accident.

You’ve avoided tariff impacts that hit other brands. How has that helped?

Because our products are made in the UK, we haven’t had the tariff impact some businesses faced. We have seen demand soften slightly, but that lack of confidence in international shopping has impacted us less than others.

We probably need to communicate the no-tariffs benefit more, but I don’t feel 100% confident because I can’t control what happens at borders. Things change so quickly.

Where else are you seeing growth?

We’re seeing significant growth in Germany and across Europe generally – Germany, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. At our pop-up shop, we had customers who’d flown in from Europe, which was incredible.

I love seeing where demand pulls from rather than pushing and forcing it. I’d rather see what’s naturally happening and move in that direction. As the German market evolves, it makes sense to build a German website, but deciding to target Germany first and building that out before natural demand wouldn’t make sense.

You did a pop-up in London. How did that inform your strategy?

The pop-up was incredible for customer research. Understanding what customers loved about products, seeing how they felt in changing rooms, hearing feedback in person, and seeing how things fit was amazing. Hearing conversations between customers was invaluable.

I would love a store. Being able to show customers in person the feel and fit of garments was amazing. There’s definitely scope to build that out as part of the business model in the future.