大象传媒

Walk into any caf茅 in a university town or city and you鈥檒l spot them straight away. With their trademark square labels, bright colours and occasional patterns, Lucy & Yak鈥檚 dungarees are practically a uniform amongst certain sections of Britain鈥檚 Gen Z. It鈥檚 a booming business. Established in 2017, the firm racked up sales of 拢27 million in the last year alone.

It wasn鈥檛 always like this. Nor was it the result of meticulous planning or strategizing. For a start, neither of the company鈥檚 founders, Lucy Greenwood and Chris Renwick had any background in design.

Instead they met whilst working as car sales people in Newcastle over a decade ago before they quit their jobs and went travelling. Money was running out, but a chance encounter with a German couple in New Zealand made them realise that life without a boss was more than possible.

Coming home, a nomadic stint in a campervan led to the unlikeliest of discoveries: a gap in a market. One that now sustains 200 jobs in a company spanning 6 shops, a giant warehouse in Barnsley, a Brighton HQ and half a dozen factories in India.

We hear their story of how they made it happen along with the hard decisions they鈥檝e taken along the way. We find out how the couple balance sustainability and ethics with operating at scale in today's ruthlessly competitive fashion industry. Finally, we look ahead to the future and discover where they plan to go next.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz