Published: 19 May 2026
Summary
We sit down with Nobody’s Child CEO Jody Plows live at the Retail Technology Show to trace how a small digital-first brand sharpens its strategy, survives lockdown, and scales fast. We dig into the leadership habits, growth model, and sustainability work that help the team stay grounded while expanding from dresses into a full lifestyle brand.
- The origin of Nobody’s Child and why the name stands out
- Repositioning toward affordable sustainable fashion with a premium feel
- Hibernating during lockdown to rebuild strategy, then relaunching in 2020
- Launching with Marks & Spencer to accelerate brand awareness
- CEO reality in a 12-person team and learning by doing
- “High low thinking” culture that keeps teams humble under pressure
- Transitioning from dresses to a lifestyle brand through new categories
- Test-and-learn product model that scales what works
- Supporting Shelter and training for the London Marathon
- Sustainability foundations including DPP work, impact reporting, circularity, and KPIs
Transcript
Host: 00:01
So, welcome back to What’s in the Box. We are here live at the Retail Technology Show on day two, and I am sat in the speaker’s lounge and have managed to catch up with none other than Jody Plows. Jody, welcome.
Jody Plows: 00:16
Hi there.
Host: 00:17
So Jody and I are shortly to go on stage and we’re going to talk about Nobody’s Child along with Andrew Zeni, who’s the founder, and Jody the CEO. So Jody, let’s just start. Tell us about Nobody’s Child. The early days, where did the name come from? All that sort of sort of thing.
Jody Plows: 00:37
So I joined Nobody’s Child at the end of 2019. Andrew appointed me as CEO after holding many roles in bio merchandising and in the industry. The brand was in its infancy, had a very small but loyal following and really strong foundations. Andrew had chosen the name Nobody’s Child, which was very distinctive. And we aligned very early on repositioning the brand to be a leading sustainable brand, a brand accessible to all women of all ages, and a brand that was affordable. Affordable but had a premium handwriting.
Host: 01:24
That’s good timing. So let’s just talk about that for a little bit. So, that would have been March 2020 when we all went into lockdown. How did how did you manage that?
Jody Plows: 01:38
There wasn’t any stores at that stage, so the brand has been a digital first brand since Andrew founded it, and I yes was appointed just before the pandemic. We decided to hibernate the brand for three months where I could work in the background on the strategy and the repositioning, and then we relaunched the brand in June 2020. Whilst we were in the relaunch, we also were in discussions with M&S to launch as the first brand on M&S.
Jody Plows: 02:08
So I was working on that project as well with a very small team. And in October of 2020, shortly after we relaunched the brand, we launched on M&S, which gave us the platform for growth for brand awareness.
Host: 02:21
Wow, well, it must be incredibly energising and exciting to be launching a new brand. And you know, do you find as CEO when it’s that sort of situation, it’s a new brand and so forth. Do you have to get your hands dirty and a lot of things that maybe in a much in a larger organization you wouldn’t you’d be able to delegate and so on and so forth? But is that fun?
Jody Plows: 02:45
I think that yes, you could say that. I mean, I would speak like there was 12 of us at the start, and I’d come from leading teams of hundreds of people in big corporate organisations, so a very big mindset shift, but so exciting and the best thing I’ve ever done. Yes, and I had to wear many hats. So at that point, I was involved with every part of the business and would very much roll up my sleeves to get stuck in in any area of the business that I wasn’t an expert. I did courses on it in the evenings, yeah, and anything to sort of get me prepared for the next stages of growth. Um we still keep that mindset, we call that high low thinking. One minute you’ll be doing a three-year strategy, and the next minute you’ll be steaming clothes to open a store, and that keeps us grounded, that keeps us humble. That culturally has been really important.
Host: 03:43
Yeah. I remember having a similar conversation with Penny Grecia. She left Rituals and then joined Aroma Zone. Similar sort of thing with their new store at Westfield, White City, literally the day before a media day that we had there. She was helping, stacking the shelves and facing up and all the rest of it and so forth. And again, seemed to really enjoy that.
Jody Plows: 04:10
I think that’s so that energy and essence of our brand has been really important. It keeps in a growth, high gross environment, it there can be really big pressure moments, stretch moments for the team. We have found that taking everyone, getting everyone’s support with projects keeps everybody motivated and morale high. So we did a sample sale in East London, and the whole team went up just weeks ago, it was like a huge team. So I’m trying to believe that.
Host: 04:44
Now you mentioned growth there, and I think it’s fair to say that it’s sorry it’s got me on a podcast. That’s all right. So we’re on the What’s in the Box, and the founder Andrew has just turned up, which is fantastic. You mentioned growth there, and I think it’s fair to say that it’s been nothing short of meteoric. I think it’s 2022 to 2024 revenue quadruples. Tell us a little bit about that.
Jody Plows: 05:15
Well, we’ve had a very clear strategy over the last three years. Myself and Angela were very aligned that we would transition the brand from a dress’s brand to a lifestyle brand, and that doesn’t happen overnight. We’ve had to build the infrastructure for that, the sourcing, but we’ve stayed very true to our strategy set out, and that has continued to deliver the growth. So we have launched different categories over the last three years, including outerwear, knitwear, most recently, footwear and accessories, and we have a test and learn model, and that works really well for us. So very measured, very considered, and then grow it.
Host: 06:04
I wanted to ask you in amongst all of that, you’ve managed to find the time, I presume, to train quite a bit for something that’s coming up. So this has been recorded, as I said earlier, at the Retail Technology Show. So we’re now on the what are we, the 23rd of April. In a few days’ time, you’re going to be doing something slightly different to retail. Tell us about that.
Jody Plows: 06:39
They support the homelessness issue that we have. Also, bigger problem, which is technically housing and people being unsafe, which no one should feel that in the UK. And so the brand has raised a significant amount of money for Shelter, and I’ve run a few times with them. They asked me to run the London marathon. How have I fitted it in? I have absolutely no idea. I’m exhausted, but I’m looking forward to the days.
Host: 07:04
I bet you are. So just to kind of finish off on getting back to Nobody’s Child, and the you know, it is a sustainable brand. I know that when we get on to the fireside chat, Andrew’s going to talk about the DPP, the digital product passports and so forth. But just in terms of sustainability, tell us a little bit about that and what it means, for you and for the brand.
Jody Plows: 07:28
Both Andrew and I had identified the gap in the market for a more sustainable brand and affordable price point. When I joined, I felt just as passionate about being part of a purpose-driven brand. So that’s driven the strategy, but we had to set the foundations up, and for that I had consultants and experts guide me. I wasn’t an expert on it. I knew I wanted to do the right thing, but it’s a very complex landscape, and so we’ve made some mistakes and learn on the on the way, but we set ourselves a very ambitious way back. The DPP was one of those projects alongside B Corp, delivering an impact report and other circular strategies. Each member of our team has set objectives and sustainability and KPI, so it’s sort of across the business, it’s not just an add on, it really is driven through everything we’re doing. I think there’s still a lot of work to do. We use the match progress and perfection, and I think that’s very much so. So we just want to make better choices, and that’s what I’m saying.
Host: 08:38
I think that’s a great place. Jody, thank you very much.
Jody Plows: 08:48
Well done for fitting this in, Andrew. Very impressed.