The Disruptors

Sarah Boyd
UK managing director, Sephora

It has been an incredible nine months for Sarah Boyd who has led the French beauty brand’s return to the UK after its 17-year hiatus.

Boyd – who was promoted in January having served as Sephora’s managing director of Southeast Asia and Oceania for two years – is overseeing Sephora’s UK store revival starting with its Westfield London Shepherd's Bush flagship, which opened in March.

The store – which followed the retailer’s UK website launch last October – is spread across 6,000 sq ft, offers products from more than 135 brands, and hosts talks, makeup workshops and masterclasses with beauty experts. Five thousand customers queued on the store’s opening day and in April the retailer revealed the store was performing “300% better than expected”.

Boyd is now gearing up to launch Sephora’s second UK store – this time at Westfield Stratford – in November and is sending shockwaves across the UK health and beauty market. Boots, for instance, has been going on the offensive and amping up its beauty credentials, with the launch of a beauty-only store in Battersea Power Station in the works.

Jens and Emma Grede
Co-founder and chief executive/Founding partner, Skims

Kim Kardashian may be the face of shapewear brand Skims, yet it is entrepreneurial husband-and-wife duo Jens and Emma Grede – co-founder and chief executive, and founding partner respectively – who are the driving forces in the retailer’s growth.

And what an ascent it has been. Launched in 2019, originally under the name Kimono, the retailer has gained a legion of fans – 5.2 million on Instagram alone – for its high-quality supportive underwear, shapewear and loungewear range.

In July, Skims gained a $4bn (£3.09bn) valuation following its latest Series C funding round of $270m (£208.8m) and is on track to reach net sales of $750m (£580.2m) in 2023.

Skims is not the first venture for the Gredes, both former advertising executives, with Jens the founder of denim label Frame and co-founder of technical apparel brand Brady, while Emma is founder and former chief executive of Khloé Kardashian-backed jeans brand Good American.

With Skims named among Time magazine’s Most Influential Companies of 2023, the Gredes are preparing to open the brand's first standalone UK store by the end of 2024. The industry will be watching closely.

Ali Hall and Julie Lavington
Co-chief executives, Sosandar 

Ali Hall and Julie Lavington were able to draw on their 20 years of experience working in fashion magazines when they set out to create a fashion brand for women who want the “latest trends that work in real life”.  The duo founded Sosandar in 2018 and have been on an ascent ever since, racking up £42.5m in sales for the year to March 2023, up from £30m the previous year.

Much of the growth has been driven via partnerships, selling on John Lewis, Next, Marks & Spencer and The Very Group websites, and a partnership with N Brown Group’s JD Williams on a wholesale agreement, struck in September 2022. Most recently, in January, the pair teamed up with Sainsbury’s to launch products available in selected stores and online.

That came as the founders evaded the post-pandemic pureplay sales spiral — Sosandar reported its first-ever year of profitability in March, a cool £1.6m pre-tax profit, up from a loss of £600,000 the previous year, and with a 65% increase in active customers to 223,000, Sosandar looks set to be a brand that doesn’t go out of fashion.

Doug Putman
Owner, HMV UK

What a decade it has been for HMV UK. In 2013 the retailer was rescued out of administration by restructuring firm Hilco in a £50m deal. In 2019 it collapsed into a second administration with its core products in major decline and was saved by Canadian entrepreneur Doug Putman.

In 2023 it is back on high streets with 119 stores, sales topping £150m and gross profits up 64% to £65.4m for the 2021/22 financial year.

Putman, owner of brands including Toys R Us Canada and music retailer Sunrise Records, has masterminded the turnaround. He purchased the business and its assets for just £883,000 and through savvy store revamps with a focus on immersive experiences has transformed HMV’s fortunes.

Eighty per cent of HMV sales are coming from stores where Putman has put live acts back on the map; every weekend the stores host local artists and/or major names to drive footfall. Putman and his team are now preparing to reopen HMV’s Oxford Street flagship by the end of the year. Putman also looked likely to become a high street saviour again when he made a last-ditch bid to save Wilko in August, offering “tens of millions of pounds” to save around 400 shops. While the deal was scuppered in September due to rising costs, there’s no denying Putman’s support for UK retail. 

Mark Smithson
Founder and chief executive, Marks Electrical

Making his Retail 100 debut as a disruptive force in the industry is Marks Electrical founder and chief executive Mark Smithson. Smithson started his business more than 35 years ago, selling second-hand cookers out of his dad’s garage, and has gradually scaled up the business.

Now based out of a 200,000 sq ft warehouse in Leicester, Smithson’s online model has been using value pricing on big brands and free next-day delivery to steadily garner market share from the likes of AO and John Lewis.

Smithson has steered growth over what has been the toughest financial period in recent UK history – announcing 30.7% sales growth to £36.2m for the four months to July 2023 and increasing its major domestic appliances share from 2.4% to 3%. Marks Electrical is also one of the few retail IPOs that has not disappointed since listing on the AIM London Stock Exchange in November 2021.

Smithson's focus for the year ahead is growing brand awareness, enhancing product range and improving availability so he can bring even more fight to the sector’s biggest players.

Chris Xu
Founder and chief executive, Shein

Shein has transformed from its humble beginnings as an online wedding dress retailer more than a decade ago – then known as SheInside – into a multi-billion-dollar online fashion, beauty and homewares behemoth.

Founder Chris Xu has become one of China’s richest men by deploying technology to reimagine the model of fashion retail. Under his leadership, browsing the Shein site feels more like an addictive mobile game than a shopping experience, hooking in an army of fans across the globe. According to intelligence site Business of Apps, Shein had 74.7 million customers in 2022.

For all its success though, Shein has faced criticism. In October 2022 a Channel 4 documentary claimed undercover footage revealed poor conditions and human rights violations in suppliers' factories, while a Greenpeace investigation in November found toxic chemicals in clothes that breached EU regulations.

While Xu has work to do to improve the company's supply chain, the controversy does not seem to be enough to take the shine off Shein. By 2025, if it continues generating revenue at its current rate, Xu’s business will take over Zara and H&M as the world’s biggest fashion retailer. Little surprise then that Xu is reportedly preparing for an IPO by the end of this year, buoyed by £1.6bn in new funding raised in March. Shein reported annual revenue of $22.7bn (£18.8bn) in 2022 and is projected to achieve annual revenue of $58.5bn (£48.6bn) by 2025.