N Brown launches innovation start-up programme

Multichannel retail group N Brown, whose brands include JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo, has teamed up with innovation specialist L Marks to launched, JD Works to hunt for eight start-ups to help “shake up the business” and improve its capabilities and services.

Focusing on innovation in product offering, ways to shop, customer experience, customer loyalty, supply chain and utilising new data, N Brown is looking for 8 start-ups to take part in a 10-week partnership programme, where they will receive mentoring, office space and access to investment from N Brown to help develop their ideas.

N Brown chief executive Angela Spindler said: “This is an incredibly exciting partnership for us. We’re in the middle of the biggest business transformation in our 140-year history, moving from being a direct-mail led to a digital first retailer.

“Digital development is a massive focus for us and partnering with L Marks will allow us access to some of the most innovative ideas from start-ups, which by their nature, are very agile. They can react extremely quickly to the opportunities presented by our ever changing retail and technology landscape.”

N Brown launches own startup accelerator programme JD Works

L Marks founder and chief executive Stuart Marks added: “JDWorks is particularly interesting for us due to the age demographic of N Brown’s customer base. Start-up products and services tend to be focused on the younger, tech-savvy generation.

“N Brown’s customer base spans from 25-year-olds to 90-year-olds and applicants will need to take this into consideration, so it will be interesting to see the ideas that are developed.”

JD Works application closing date is July 30, with 25 selected start-ups invited to pitch their ideas on September 7. The 10-week programme starts on September 26.

L Marks has also helped John Lewis launch its own startup accelerator JLab and Topshop to launch Top Pitch looking for future leaders of fashion technology.

Image: N Brown Group website