Anna Louise Simpson grew up in Edinburgh and went to St Augustine’s High School, where she won the Hugh Toner Award for English. She studied law at the University of Glasgow, graduating with an Honours degree in Commercial Law and Taxation.
Having gained and completed a traineeship at Dundas & Wilson, she then worked as a Corporate Lawyer with Dundas & Wilson for a number of years, before working as an in-house lawyer with Noble & Company. She then worked as a Corporate Lawyer with Fyfe Ireland before leaving law to study art and be a figurative painter (with the odd stiletto painting thrown in!).
After the birth of her first child, she was a full-time mum for 2 and half years, which was probably the most difficult job to date! With the birth of her second child, she decided to start up her own business which would allow her the flexibility to be her own boss whilst looking after her children. Like lots of other women or “mumpreneurs”, this involves being very flexible, very organized and very, very focused. All great attributes for a new business owner!
Her first business, Mama Tea was started in April 2009 and she managed to secure a contract with Waitrose within 4 weeks of starting-up. In the first year of the business, she has secured several large contracts, including one with Tesco, which has just started. Mama Tea is a herbal tea company, with a focus on the niche pregnancy market as well as the wider herbal tea market. The herbs are sourced from a German company known for its quality and the tea is contract packed in the U.K.
The business is a completely out-sourced business model, which allows her the flexibility to keep the capital costs down whilst growing the business quickly. As well as growing the company’s market share in the UK, Anna Louise is very interested in expanding into the International market. Mama Tea already supplies retailers in Sweden, Spain, Italy, Denmark and the Middle East and has had interest from the U.S. , Russia, Australia and South Africa.
Mama Tea is just about to launch its new ecommerce website, which will allow the business to supply both consumers and businesses direct in Europe with free delivery. The new website will also be in various languages, to aid the growth in these markets. As part of Mama Tea’s European ecommerce strategy, the business will be utilising social media tools to the utmost degree to grow the market in Europe organically online. The aim is then to launch the ecommerce side of the business internationally. Ultimately, this allows the business to grow markets in other countries, which creates a platform for growth with larger retailers in those countries.
Anna Louise absolutely loves running her own business and is passionate about encouraging others, particularly mums, to startup their own businesses.
She loves rolling about with her children, music (the lifeblood of the Mama Tea office!), running, travelling, Rome, stilettos , and learning new things.
