I started a pop-up pre-loved clothes shop in Ramsgate and made £12k in a month: Now my Positive Retail brand has three stores

Anna Woods launched Positive Retail in 2020 after a long career in fashion

The demise of the British high street has been long and painful for a number of retailers.

The high-profile collapses of brands like Topshop marked the end of an era and precipitated a boom in online fast fashion retailers.

For Anna Woods, Topshop’s closure was much more than that. 

She had started her career there as a buyer’s admin assistant and when the brand went under, she started to think about how, in an era of fast fashion, a modern high street should look.

Woods launched Positive Retail in 2020 and what started as a small pop-up in her local town quickly became three permanent stores, which she hopes will bring some life back to the high street.

‘The fashion industry is based on newness’

After nearly 20 years in the fashion industry, Anna had seen the face of the high street drastically change to prioritise newness and speed.

By the time she had made it to director level at another leading brand, she felt ‘burnt out at the industry and the waste.’

‘It was the same relentless cycle of designing collections, bringing them in, marking them down to make room for new collections. The system is all based on newness.

‘If we stopped producing clothes now, there’s enough for the next six generations. We don’t need to keep producing at the rate we’re producing.’

By coincidence, Anna left the industry to become a leadership coach the day Topshop went under, and it sparked an idea for what would later become Positive Retail.

‘On that day, I thought this has got to be a changing of the guard. I just thought I had to play my part in the way that I think the high street should be done and what we should be offering.’

Anna decided on a month-long small pop-up in Ramsgate to sell pre-loved clothes from her buying days, and convinced five of her friends to do the same.

Anna took £12,000 over the course of the month but always had her eye on the shop next door.

‘I spoke to the landlord, invited him to the pop up and it sort of snowballed from there.’ She opened her first permanent store in Ramsgate in September 2021.

What started as a pre-loved concept quickly evolved into something bigger, and now Woods has big brands sending her stock to sell on their behalf.

She describes it as ‘half an alternative to eBay or Vinted, half an alternative to TkMaxx.’

Woods opened another store in Margate in December 2022 and in May this year opened the third Positive Retail shop in Deal.

Woods opened her third permanent store in Kent earlier this year 

‘I don’t want to ask a load of men for money’

A move into physical retail space came naturally to Woods, who had managed huge budgets in her previous role in retail. Although she admits ‘it’s a completely different concept when it’s your own money’.

She initially put in £10,000 to the first Ramsgate store but ‘it paid for itself every month.’

She says she has tightly managed the cash flow and owns none of the stock which helps to keep overheads low.

If a customer brings in an item they want to sell, Woods will sell on their behalf and has a strict three-six month selling period.

Brands are also on sale or return and are paid half, excluding VAT, meaning they make their cost price plus a bit more back. She pays people once a quarter.

‘Not having investors and not having a massive weight of stock around my neck is good and bad. If I owned my own stock, I could grow a bit faster but it’s also meant I’ve not got huge outgoings.

‘I’m under no illusion that if I’d borrowed a load of money I would have had stock quicker. I’m just sensible with the cash flow.’

Woods has chosen to prioritise physical retail space over rushing to selling online

Woods has decided against investment for the time being.

‘I know I could put an amazing pitch deck together and find investment. I’ve proven a concept that’s profitable and that brands want to be associated with it. 

‘But I’ve come from a corporate environment, I was always answering to men… My reluctance is that I’ve left that environment and [with investors] I’m back in a room asking men for money.

‘I do know I could grow faster if that’s what I did, but there’s something nice about natural, organic growth.’

While she sells some pre-loved stock online, growing the online side of the business would require extra capital.

‘You either need to borrow money – which I think I would rather do – than get investors for this next stage.

‘My monthly sales are £25,000 a month and there’s probably about £2,000 profit buy the time I’ve paid staff, head office and sellers. It’s not negative but it’s not loads.’

Why physical stores beat online

Unlike other founders who talk about the need to move fast and destroy things, Woods felt that there was very little risk in opening a physical store.

‘If I’m super honest, none of it has felt like crazy risk. I’ve known the sales figures I’ve got to do… When you’ve worked in retail 25 years, not much surprises you.’

In the current environment, the caution has paid off. 

Her Margate store has been a particular hit turning over £17,000 a month, in large part because of the ‘cool Londoners living there, and good food and art scene.’

Unlike other brands that have started in recent years, Positive Retail’s online presence is minimal. 

It’s a conscious decision, in part to help slow down the consumption of fashion.

‘I work in store two days a week and it’s a joy to be able to explain to people that all of the stock had a life before. 

‘If I didn’t have those physical spaces, my message wouldn’t be there… I think I wouldn’t be doing anywhere near the figures I’m doing if I’d been another online shop.

‘People haven’t been offered a better alternative for so long.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk