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You and Yours: Gap Finders: Lucy & Yak's, Lucy Greenwood and Chris Renwick

Gap Finders: Lucy & Yak's, Lucy Greenwood and Chris Renwick

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Gap Finders: Lucy & Yak's, Lucy Greenwood and Chris Renwick

We meet the couple behind Lucy & Yak and their colourful dungarees.

Winifred Robinson meets the couple behind Lucy & Yak. We find out how they accidentally spotted a gap selling colourful dungarees to millennial mums and Gen Z.

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

It wasn’t always like this.  Nor was it the result of meticulous planning or strategizing.  For a start, neither of the company’s 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’ve  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

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