Why Timing Is Everything in Baby Retail with Sarah Ashby | RTS 2026

Hello, everyone.

This is Omnitalk Retail.

I'm Chris Walton and we are coming to you live from the Retail Technology show in London in the Vusion Podcast studio.

And joining me now is Sarah Ashby.

Sarah is the interim CEO and COO at Mamas and Papas.

Sarah, welcome to omnitalk.

Thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Now, I've been a.

You know, my history with Mamas and Papas goes back a long ways.

I remember first visiting one of your stores back in 2009 when I was in charge of the baby department for Target.

So please tell our audience back home.

Yes.

About what it is that makes the brand so special and unique.

I think first is our heritage, our British heritage.

So we are over 40 years old and every Mamas and Papa's branded product is designed in the uk, so very much kind of British design credentials and engineering.

So I think that's number one of why our brand is quite famous at Heritage and Trust.

I think the second thing is we actually do loads of different categories, so we are, I think, one of the only really credible nursery brands that has authority in multi categories.

So we do push chairs, we do nursery furniture, we do clothing, we do blankets, we do toys, etc.

And then we also have the Superpower as a brand that we have our own stores.

So we have 64 shops in the UK and we have 25 outside of the UK with some of our partners.

And so that's pretty unique in the baby business.

Right.

Because of the dynamics of how that business works.

Can you explain that?

It is unique and I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to grow on the back of that.

So, I mean, the business started as a brand and as a wholesaler.

And I think early on in the journey, there was definitely a gap in the market for Mamas and Papa's then to have some stores.

But if you go to a Mamas and Papa's store, you will see plenty of our own brand.

But what is so important is our customer and offering choice and a good range.

You know, she wants to have a level of choice when buying things like a push chair.

Right.

So 70 of our products are Mamas and Papas, but we do sell 30 as other brands.

So like a bugaboo, an eye candy, noona, etc.

So all the best of breed nursery brands, they work in tandem with Mamas and Peppers.

Got it.

Okay.

All right, good to know.

All right, so interim CEO and COO at the time.

Same.

Same time.

So.

So tell us about that.

What led you to take on that challenge.

Well, I joined the business in January 2024 actually with, with another title is CFO.

Oh my God.

All season you got them all covered.

Got them all covered.

Just ticking, ticking boxes along the way.

So yeah, I joined as the CFO and we are at a point where we have sort of written a new four year strategy and be great to talk to you a bit about what we're up to.

Yeah.

And as part of that we have made a number of changes which is super exciting and I've had the opportunity over the last of nine months to be lead which is such a joy.

I mean at my core I am a mamas and papa's die hard fan.

I am a customer.

I have two daughters, a 5 and a 7 year old and I had the best experience when I was pregnant.

Mamas and papas were by my side.

So to now be leading this brand and this business is such a joy.

Yeah.

So I mean you mentioned it.

Let's just go right there, right now.

So what, what are the, what are you focused on strategically as you look forward?

So I think there's a few things that we want to be famous for.

Number one is to be destination for first time parents and to help that really overwhelming experience when you become a parent and when you know a woman is pregnant, unless you're in that world, you don't really know what you need and you also get served up loads of things that you actually don't need.

So we are famous for advice and support as well as, you know, the journey, the shopping journey and what a customer actually needs to buy.

So you know, I spend a lot of time and money training our store colleagues on how to sort of emotionally storytell, understand a customer's journey and be there to be actually quite helpful and fairly impartial to make sure that you know, a customer is leaving having the best experience, feeling great but also buying the things that they actually need.

So that's number one.

Number one, advice, support.

I think number two is, you know, we are, we're quite fortunate that it's a very time bound, predictable customer journey right from pregnancy, birth, newborn weaning to the joys of toddlers and then actually mamas and papas becomes unhelpful because we don't have products post sort of toddler age.

So how do we look at lifetime value?

I think we should be more famous for gifting.

So that is another area where we're looking strategically about how we, you know, support customers and extend that sort of lifetime that Lifetime journey.

So advice and service, gifting.

And then the other thing that we are doing is we are scaling our brand outside of the uk.

It's not sort of global domination yet, but as you said, you know, it's quite unique business model.

There's more we can be doing outside of the uk, so we're putting down sort of more foundations outside of the uk.

How, how are those international market dynamics different for you?

Like, what have you had to think about that you haven't had to do, say, in the uk?

I think a number of things.

Firstly, starting, I suppose, with a customer and choice, it's amazing.

Depending on the territory, the, the almost the, the rank list, the hit list of the best sellers of brands, you'd think it'd be the same brand no matter which other country.

And it's wildly different.

I mean, I had a great family holiday in Australia in October and there's one particular brand there that's actually smashing it out of the park.

You wouldn't know about it in the UK or the us, whereas there's other brands that are much more global.

So I think firstly it's about getting the right range and the right choice for the customer.

I think the second thing is, I mean, look, the go to market model and how people actually shop, do they go to a destination specialist retailer?

Do they want to shop online?

Do they want to shop in a department store?

So we've got quite a multifaceted go to market model where we do shop in shops.

We, we have obviously online, we have an app, we have our own stores.

We actually just have our brand in other retailers as well.

So we've had to be quite cute depending on the territory, on what go to Market model works.

But you know, the one thing that is consistent throughout is that journey is messy and overwhelming when you're pregnant and service and advice is so wanted and needed.

So, you know, we're kind of consistent on that front.

Yeah, that is the through line.

I mean, that's the thing I loved about running the baby business, is that every year you had a new customer for the most part.

You know, I mean, you might have a second, a second time mom or dad, but like for the most part.

Is that everything's hand me down.

Yeah, right.

You know.

Right, yeah.

It's a different experience the second time around.

But that was really fun because it was very invigorating to try to do things that were new, to capture that person.

And you're right, I gotta imagine that dynamic when you look internationally, it's gotta.

Be, oh, it's wild.

Even more exponentially different.

Well, this is it.

And you, I think there's a real positive and there's a real negative.

The positive is if you don't get it right, you know, yesterday, you can get it right tomorrow.

Right.

So that's great.

It's a new customer every time and you can start to sort of shift and try things actually.

But also it's, it's expensive because you've got to acquire a new customer every day.

So actually that customer acquisition is so important, that funnel to make sure that you capture them first time.

Because if you don't get them in your ecosystem that first time, you won't get them.

Well, that's what I was going to ask you about actually.

I'm glad you brought that up because, because like, you know, if you know the baby business, you know, there's like you said, there's the first time mom and then there's kind of the postnatal mom too or postnatal parent or post first time parent.

How do you think about that from your personalization and your loyalty strategy?

Like how does that duality play into the tactics you all deploy at mamas and papas to keep that customer, you know, the first time and keep them coming back as soon as they can.

So the most valuable customer is first time and the most valuable moment is pre trimester three.

Okay.

So we're even more maniacally focused on even the week of pregnancy of when we want to capture the pregnant woman.

Yeah.

So we have, we have some really set targets in terms of our funnel of when we want to capture them, how we capture them and how we speak to them each sort of week of pregnancy.

Because it is like I said, time bound and prescriptive, you know, you know, by let's say 37 weeks pregnant.

If you haven't got your stuff sorted and you're not nested, it's quite stressful.

So you need to have all your gear by that point.

But actually you might not have done your nursery furniture.

You need your bedside sleep, but you don't necessarily need your furniture.

So we almost try and predict and help the customers.

We sort of tell them almost what they need before they even know they need it.

And then after birth we have a, we have still have quite a large range of products to be helpful, but our pre birth market and share is way, way higher.

Got it.

So you're still leaning into those traditional prenatal categories at that time.

Wow.

Over say like the feeding categories and things like that.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Wow.

I never would have guessed that.

Okay.

All right.

Well, let's say.

Let's say for the sake of argument that it's 2027, we're back at RTS, and I'm interviewing you again.

What do you hope to accomplish and take pride in telling me about next year?

I think on those three things I want to be famous for, I think, you know, great, solid progress on, I want.

Great.

We already have wonderful customer feedback, but even better, like NPS scores, trust pilot scores on how our customer is seeing Mama's and Papa show up and us giving that brilliant advice.

I'd love to have a brilliant gifting business.

I'd love to have a deeper business in a number of different territories.

I think, from a personal point of view, I'd love to still be here as well, you know, leading the business.

It is absolutely a dream job and a business I'm so proud to lead.

It is.

It is a business that has so much purpose.

You know, our purpose is to inspire and support parents to be the best they can be.

And when I say that, it isn't just like a strap line, it is a golden thread running through our business today, whether it's for our colleagues or our customers.

So I think being true to that purpose will also be important.

That's great.

All right, wonderful.

Well, Sarah Ashby, the interim CEO and COO at Mamas and Papas, thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks to the Retail Technology show and Divusion for making our coverage of conference the possible.

And on behalf of all of us at omnitalk, as always, be careful out there.