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Why it made our list:
Jo Jenner started 3 Blonde Bears with savings of just £5,000 – and 16 months later it is one of Notonthehighstreet.com’s top grossing partners. The Sussex-based manufacturer and online retailer, which was also crowned Notonthehighstreet.com’s ‘Partner of the Year’ at the marketplace’s 2012 Make Awards, boasts a customer database of more than 17,000, and is expecting to grow turnover by more than 50% in 2012. Jenner’s personalised product business has no doubt benefited from her background in buying and design (at Alexander McQueen, Laura Ashley and Warehouse, among others). As a mother-of-three herself, she has an intuitive feel for how to target her ABC1, mother-and-child customers and, such has been its progress to date, that 3 Blonde Bears recently signed a lease for a 1,200-square foot premises. The future’s looking bright.