Earlier this month, Ocado launched an all female-founded virtual aisle in collaboration with Buy Women Built, an organisation created to promote women-owned brands.
The aisle stocks nearly 1000 products from over 130 female founded brands.
Ocado has received backlash online following this launch, with debates circulating the internet about whether this was a good way to promote women’s brands.
Juliet Barratt, the founder of Grenade, has taken to LinkedIn to label the action as “special treatment.”
Juliet Barratt via LinkedIn
This week, CityNews has been asking female-founded businesses in London how they feel about this launch, and whether it is something that they feel their business could benefit from.
London itself holds the highest number of women-led business, with 19.8% of all UK businesses being located in the capital.
The owners of Salad Days, an independent business running pop-up market days, believe that Ocado’s launch of an all-female aisle is a great way to celebrate female creators.
They spoke about the “patronising” reactions they received when starting their business.
They believe that if they were men of the same age, they “highly doubt” anyone would have questioned if it was something they were sure they wanted to launch.
They told City News that they believe that work like Ocado’s should be celebrated, stating that:
“if we can create channels or different ways of increasing women’s confidence and celebrating them in business, then that’s a great thing.”
The founders of Salad Days, Daisy and Liv, stated that: “Women are underrepresented, why shouldn’t they have an opportunity to shine?”
Isatu Funna, the owner of the London based design studio ‘Dar Leone’, said that despite the “great boost” for new businesses, she would rather not be categorised into a female-only business community.
The designer stated that she likes being with all business people, and is not sure if she wants to be “labelled” in an aisle.
‘Dar Leone’: a female-founded design studio in Islington
In 2019, the Treasury commissioned an independent review, called the Rose Review, into female entrepreneurship in the UK, with an updated version being published in 2023.
According to statistics found from this review, £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men.
The percentage of new corporations being founded by women in gradually increasing, increasing from 16% in 2018 to 20.5% in 2023, creating a larger female-founded business community.
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StandfirstBusiness owners have been left in disagreement following fallout resulting from new initiative to promote women-founded brands
Earlier this month, Ocado launched an all female-founded virtual aisle in collaboration with Buy Women Built, an organisation created to promote women-owned brands.
The aisle stocks nearly 1000 products from over 130 female founded brands.
Ocado has received backlash online following this launch, with debates circulating the internet about whether this was a good way to promote women’s brands.
Juliet Barratt, the founder of Grenade, has taken to LinkedIn to label the action as “special treatment.”
Juliet Barratt via LinkedIn
This week, CityNews has been asking female-founded businesses in London how they feel about this launch, and whether it is something that they feel their business could benefit from.
London itself holds the highest number of women-led business, with 19.8% of all UK businesses being located in the capital.
The owners of Salad Days, an independent business running pop-up market days, believe that Ocado’s launch of an all-female aisle is a great way to celebrate female creators.
They spoke about the “patronising” reactions they received when starting their business.
They believe that if they were men of the same age, they “highly doubt” anyone would have questioned if it was something they were sure they wanted to launch.
They told City News that they believe that work like Ocado’s should be celebrated, stating that:
“if we can create channels or different ways of increasing women’s confidence and celebrating them in business, then that’s a great thing.”
The founders of Salad Days, Daisy and Liv, stated that: “Women are underrepresented, why shouldn’t they have an opportunity to shine?”
Isatu Funna, the owner of the London based design studio ‘Dar Leone’, said that despite the “great boost” for new businesses, she would rather not be categorised into a female-only business community.
The designer stated that she likes being with all business people, and is not sure if she wants to be “labelled” in an aisle.
‘Dar Leone’: a female-founded design studio in Islington
In 2019, the Treasury commissioned an independent review, called the Rose Review, into female entrepreneurship in the UK, with an updated version being published in 2023.
According to statistics found from this review, £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men.
The percentage of new corporations being founded by women in gradually increasing, increasing from 16% in 2018 to 20.5% in 2023, creating a larger female-founded business community.
