Jessica Lancaster and Charlotte Stagg were still living in their childhood bedrooms when a potential investor offered them £30,000 for a 10 per cent slice of their business, Coconut Lane. The cash felt like a sure path to growth but, at the 11th hour, the investor pulled out.
In hindsight, it was lucky for them that he did. Today, Coconut Lane has revenue of more than £17 million and profits just under £5 million in the year to September. It is on track to turn over £20 million by the end of this year. That investor would have made millions.
Lancaster and Stagg have kept full control of the business, which has two brands: Coconut Lane, which sells fashion-led tech accessories, and Cocopup, a dog accessory business that now contributes roughly half of group revenue.
Coconut Lane’s products include patterned phone cases priced between £20 and £40, and Apple Watch straps that can be swapped like jewellery. Cocopup sells pet accessories with a similar aesthetic, allowing customers to co-ordinate their phone case with their dog’s harness. Everything is designed to be Instagram-worthy.
Part of the Coconut Lane range
COCONUT LANE
Cocopup accessories
COCOPUP BY COCONUT LANE
The pair, born in the same Oxfordshire hospital a year apart, became inseparable during their first year at St Helenand St Katharine private girls’ school in Abingdon. By 16, they were talking about starting a business together, even if neither fully believed it would happen. They suspect their instinct for commerce might have been inherited from their self-employed parents.
Naturally, they went on to study together, although on different courses, at Bristol University. After graduating, Lancaster landed a digital marketing internship at a wedding directory business and Stagg moved to London for an unpaid role at a small beauty startup. “I was one of three people,” she said. “I was thrown in the deep end.” When the company needed branded tweezers, Stagg learnt how to source products.
The internship ended without a job offer, but it convinced Stagg they could go it alone. She moved back home, joining Lancaster, who was still living with her family. “We were very lucky that we didn’t have to pay rent,” Lancaster said.
Coconut Lane was incorporated in September 2015. “We didn’t really have a clear vision for the brand,” Stagg, 33, admitted. “Our main motivation was just wanting to work together.”
They invested £1,000 each in dribs and drabs and launched a website selling monochrome wall prints inspired by the motivational quotes flooding Instagram and Pinterest at the time. The prints were produced on card using Stagg’s parents’ printer. Sales went well so they began importing small batches of phone cases and makeup bags from China to test the waters.
Lancaster’s marketing and social media experience helped them launch the “Coconut Queen” scheme. Bloggers received 50 per cent discounts and earned a 25 per cent commission through personalised codes in exchange for promoting the brand. The increased amount of links to the company’s webpage spiked traffic and sales, and fuelled a steady flow of user-generated content.
For years, the founders packed orders themselves in Stagg’s parents’ spare room, ferrying parcels to the post office each day. But by 2018, orders were piling up and there was little time or space for growing the business. To help ease the pressure, they outsourced fulfilment, hired their first employee and rented an office in Oxford. “It was really stressful for a few months,” Lancaster said. For the first time, overheads pushed the business into the red.
Lancaster and Charlotte Stagg in their warehouse
PHILIPPA JAMES FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Stagg dipped into her savings but Lancaster had none. Her mother offered to lend £5,000 and told her to keep going. Not knowing if she’d be able to pay the loan back was “traumatising because five grand was a lot of money to my mum”. She needn’t have worried: within three months, the business was back in profit. Within six, the loan was repaid and Stagg had recovered her investment, too.
About the same time as the failed investment deal, the founders took a trip to Shenzhen, in southern China, to visit their suppliers and factories in person. They described it as an “amazing experience” that strengthened their relationships with suppliers, which have since visited them in the UK too.
In early 2020, Coconut Lane brought fulfilment back in house and moved its operations to a warehouse that Lancaster’s mother and brother had recently set up in Witney. When the pandemic hit weeks later, warehouses were allowed to remain open and online shopping surged. “It pushed the business forwards years,” Lancaster said.
A rainbow phone case launched in support of the National Health Service was hugely popular on social media and among influencers: all the proceeds went to the NHS. By the end of the year, the business had cash in the bank for the first time.
This had two positive implications for the business, which now had 15 staff: the founders could pay themselves wages; and, they had money to reinvest in the business. It so happened that, like many, Lancaster’s family bought a dog in lockdown. It made them realise there was a gap in the market for on-trend women’s dog accessories.
Ask me anything
They launched Cocopup and it grew rapidly, partly because of the good timing and partly because they had a proven marketing playbook to follow. The new brand now stocks 250 Pets at Home stores, rising to 300 next year, and has enjoyed success especially internationally. A quarter of its sales come from abroad, including in the United States, Australia and Europe.
This is not without its challenges. Delivery logistics and US tariffs are a constant frustration for Stagg, who oversees that side of the operation. However, she credits much of Coconut Lane’s success to being savvy with costs and a willingness to teach themselves. “I don’t think there’s anything we didn’t learn how to do,” Stagg said.
Four years ago, they bought a house together in a quiet village near the Cotswolds, ten minutes from the office and warehouse. They share it with Stagg’s husband and Lancaster’s partner. It can be “intense”, they admit, but they love it.
Next, they are exploring a baby brand. It would be a natural extension, given that Stagg is expecting her first child and many of the customers who started out with Coconut Lane are entering a similar stage of life.
“Everyone’s always thinking about what’s next,” Lancaster, 32, said, “but I think we also need to make sure we pause as much as we can with our team to really celebrate. I often think about how proud and shocked our Year 7 selves would be of where we are now.”
