Temperley London names Sally Hughes new CEO

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 11, 2018

There’s a new leader at the helm of Temperley London with the company naming Sally Hughes as its new CEO with immediate effect. She replaces Patricia Sancho who has returned to her native Spain after five years at the company.

Hughes is a marketing, commercial and digital sales expert and her background emphasises the areas that are important to independent modern luxury businesses these days.

Working alongside the label’s founder and creative chief Alice Temperley, she will be at the helm of the firm's expansion drive with the designer saying that she has “a wealth of experience in key strategic areas.”

It's a busy time for the label with its London fashion week show happening this Saturday, but that shouldn't faze Hughes who has worked for some key names in the industry. And her experience hasn't only been in fashion with beauty and the more disruptive end of the food and drink market also figuring on her CV.

She has held senior roles at Net-a-Porter (with five years at the company, most recently as head of performance marketing and commercial) and Google, running retail insight. And she was at the helm for the UK launch of Glossier in her role as general manager there. She has also worked at Jack Wills and Innocent Drinks.

She said that she and Temperley “immediately bonded” over their vision for the brand’s expansion in a digitally focused age and the frequent recurrence of the word ‘digital’ in the announcement of her appointment makes it very clear that this will be a major focus for the company.

Temperley is still relatively small with turnover below £11 million and has been loss-making, but earlier this year raised almost £2 million of investment cash to support its growth strategy, which it has described as “ambitious”.

Despite having only five standalone stores, it's available in 30 countries through more than 150 doors on a wholesale basis.

The outgoing Sancho had been promoted to the CEO role early last year. She had joined Temperley in December 2013 as SVP Global Sales, later becoming president.