HASFA ABUBACKER

After working in home shopping for ten years, Abubacker’s decided there was scope to offer the UK consumer a more sophisticated approach to the traditional US style informercials. Having the courage of her convictions, she left her job in March 2004 and started Pitchwell from her two-bedroom flat in North London the following day. By the year’s end, she’d generated £160,000 of profit on £1.6m sales, providing shopping channels with products and shows. But Abubacker soon realised that the only way to continue this phenomenal growth was for Pitchwell to purchase its own TV channel.

In a Dragon’s Den style series of interviews, Abubacker had to present the case for “Pitch TV” to several investors. Needless to say, in October 2005, Abubacker became the only woman and, aged 31, the youngest person in the UK to own and run a shopping channel. Pitchwell has since gone on to enter the high street retail environment – its products are now sold across 300 stores in the UK and Ireland. Under the slogan of “switch to pitch”, Abubacker is aiming to reach 1,500 STORES by the year’s end. Turnover recently hit £8.5m.

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