If you’ve been served recently in White Stuff by a middle-aged woman with good hair and above-average knowledge of trouser fit, chances are she was no ordinary shop assistant.

But then Jo Jenkins is no ordinary CEO. The boss of this British fashion retailer, which turns 40 next year, spent time anonymously in the Henley and Guildford branches.

‘I was running around serving customers who didn’t know who I was,’ says Jenkins, in White Stuff cream jeans and sweater. ‘What I learned most was that the mature ladies want style advice.’

From these changing-room chats Jenkins, at 55 a similar age to her average customer, learned that many women want items cut for shorter frames. This has led to the launch of a petite range in 50 stores. ‘You can read all the data you want,’ says Jenkins, herself 5ft 4in, ‘but there’s nothing like serving in a shop. If a customer says, “I like it, but it slips off the shoulder”, that conversation is invaluable.’ It was customers, rather than celebrities or influencers, who she turned to for a marketing campaign that went viral.

When White Stuff staff spotted 88-year-old Sylvia Ezer browsing in her local Muswell Hill store in North London last year, they posted her picture on Facebook and got 20 times the normal engagement. The stylish, platinum-haired former teacher became the face of the brand.

Brand CEO Jo Jenkins

‘When we met Sylvia, looking marvellous in our red coat, it got us thinking about how many more customers were radiant like her. So we put out a casting call in our shops saying if you fancy being a model, sign up.’ Thousands did. The result: a merry band of customers- turned-models – like Beth, a counsellor from Anglesey, and 50-something couple Peter and Debra, fans of 80s music and hot yoga. 

Other shoots have starred wild-water swimmers, roller-skaters and female morris dancers from the Cotswolds jigging in folksy dresses and colourful knits.

‘Quality, unique, interesting’ are the three words Jenkins uses to describe the brand’s DNA. Her strategy is working. Amid the general high-street doom, White Stuff is in rude health, with 121 UK shops and concessions in John Lewis, Next and M&S. Year-on-year sales have risen to £155 million, up 2.4 per cent.

It’s a world away from its roots. Founded in 1985 by Brit ski lovers George Treves and Sean Thomas, the catering student and handyman sold T-shirts in the Alps to fund their expensive passion. They called themselves Boys from the White Stuff, a reference both to snow and Alan Bleasdale’s TV drama Boys from the Blackstuff.

In October this year, after 39 years in business together, Treves and Thomas sold the company to TFG London, which also owns Hobbs, Whistles and Phase Eight, with Jenkins staying on as CEO.

I meet her at White Stuff HQ – in a full-sized replica store filled with Christmas pyjamas, fair isle knits and stripy socks. The team uses the space as a testing ground for what works. ‘Having that wow factor, being able to touch and feel the product, is absolutely fundamental,’ says Jenkins.

She joined M&S as a junior management trainee straight from school, disappointing her mum by shunning university: ‘Even at 18 my idea of a great day out was shopping.’ Jenkins then joined Next, where she became a director of womenswear, staying for 16 years while bringing up children George, 21, Frannie, 19, and Lizzie, 16, with property developer husband Karl. Another stint with M&S ended in 2018 when she was poached by White Stuff to be chief executive.

It can’t hurt that Jenkins’s vast experience and life stage give her an edge over her mostly male retail rivals. ‘As a woman, your 50s is a confident life phase. You know who you are and what you’re looking for – yet you’re largely ignored and underrepresented. We recognise that.’

A year ago, Jenkins did the opposite of most midlife women – upping sticks from her rural Leicestershire home and moving her family to West London. ‘I’m not ready for village life. I want to wander out and get a coffee, go to the theatre, not have to drive. Hopefully it means our kids will be nearby for ever. It’s a new chapter.’

So the next time you’re browsing in a London White Stuff store, keep an eye out for the woman on the till. Definitely no ordinary CEO.