Commercial strategy · Brand growth · Market access

Turning a great idea into a business that runs, and makes money.

F.B. Consultancy is the commercial engine behind founder-led and owner-led businesses. The strategy, brand, structure and delivery that turn something promising into something that stands on its own.

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What we do

The commercial engine behind a brand.

A great idea is not yet a business. The difference is the operation underneath it: the model, the structure and the discipline. That engine is the part we build, so a brand does not just look good, it runs.

Commercial Strategy

The model, the margins and the plan that holds up when it meets the real world.

Brand & Positioning

What you stand for, said clearly enough that the right customer recognises it and buys.

Operational Readiness

The structure underneath, so the business runs on a system rather than on you.

Launch & Growth

Getting it out into the world, and then getting it moving, with something to measure.

Market Access

New markets, new channels and new rooms. Including UK diaspora markets, and landing brands between the UK, Europe and West Africa.

Delivery

From design and content to production. One hand rather than five, so the work arrives finished.

Fay leads every engagement, and brings in trusted specialists for the parts that need them, so the work stays joined up rather than becoming a scramble of freelancers.

Sectors

Where we know the room.

Businesses where brand and operation have to work as one thing, in the UK and internationally. Range rather than a single-sector specialism.

Hospitality Food & drink Retail Lifestyle & consumer brands Design Music & the creator economy Technology Property

Selected work

The work, not the logo wall.

Hospitality · Repositioning

A central London music venue

A three-floor building trading evenings only. The work: open it in the daytime, turn an unused space into something lettable, and reprice hire against real comparable data. Sequenced so the business never has to close. Proposal delivered.

Shopfront of a Caribbean kitchen and lounge in London at dusk, deep green frontage, warm interior light and planting

Hospitality · Commercial partner

A Caribbean bar and grill, London

Hands-on commercial partner. Brand story and press, a new daytime trade, a monthly showcase programme, community and public-sector partnerships, and the interior and frontage direction: material, colour and light chosen to be built rather than styled, and grounded in the food rather than themed around it.

Window of a luxury menswear store in London, tailored outerwear on a mannequin and a pale stone interior

Luxury retail · Market entry

An Italian luxury house entering the UK

UK market entry end to end. The service agreement designed and the contract negotiated, the team hired, onboarded and trained, logistics and stock flow, visual merchandising, and the marketing, PR and events programme.

Also working on

A music technology platform. Commercial structure, positioning and narrative, a partnership and sponsorship pipeline, and an education programme for artists.
An urban accessory brand. A strategic pivot: working out which product is actually the business, building a three-tier product architecture, and the campaign and seeding plan behind it.
An architecture and masterplanning studio. Positioning and brand narrative, and an international exhibition delivered end to end, from the application through the stand and production to the day itself.
A film festival. Sponsorship and partnership strategy, built from what the festival already runs and sequenced so something pays before the long-term pitch lands.
A homeware house bringing a product to the UK. Market readiness and compliance, a review of how the brand shows up online, a call on which name leads in a new market, and the route through to the UK buyer.

Fay Birmingham, founder of F.B. Consultancy

Fay BirminghamFounder, F.B. Consultancy

The founder

An operator, not an outsider.

F.B. Consultancy is led by Fay Birmingham. Eighteen years in luxury retail and fashion, across Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Chloé, Alexander Wang and Theory. Nine of those at Alexander Wang, building UK strategy, overseeing European stores and helping grow the Mayfair flagship tenfold.

She has also done the other side of it. She has owned and run her own businesses, including a live-music venue, so the highs and lows of building something real are first hand rather than theoretical. When a founder describes the week they have just had, she recognises it.

That combination is the point. Big-brand discipline, applied at the scale a founder is actually working at, by somebody who has carried the same weight.

Why founders bring her in

She has run the thing she is advising on. Rotas, rent, suppliers and a bad Tuesday. The advice is shaped by having had to live with it.
Commercial first, brand second, and both at once. A brand that looks right and loses money is a hobby. The model and the identity get built together.
She finishes. Strategy that stops at a deck is half a job. The work goes through to the operation, the launch and the people delivering it.
The work is research-led. Market data, comparables and primary sources sit underneath every recommendation, so a plan can be argued rather than just believed.
She opens doors most advisers cannot. Routes between the UK, Europe and West Africa, and into diaspora markets, built on relationships rather than a list.

What we actually do

Eight levers, pulled in whatever order the business needs.

One engagement rarely needs all of them. Most need more than they expected.

Market and opportunity analysis Brand positioning and narrative Product and revenue lines Creative direction and asset commissioning Events, programming and exhibitions Partnerships, sponsorship and public sector Digital presence Commercial and operational structure

How we work

Most businesses are already sitting on the answer.

The method is the same whether it is a restaurant, a retail brand, a venue or a technology platform.

Find what the business already owns and is not selling

Usually a room, a time of day, an audience, or a story. Rarely something that has to be bought.

Price it against what the market actually pays

Real comparables and primary sources, not instinct and not last year's number.

Sequence the change so trading funds it

Each phase paid for by the one before it. Nothing that depends on borrowing or on closing the doors.

Build the pipeline that makes it repeatable

Partnerships, press and programme, so it is a new way of trading rather than a good quarter.

And it is staged

Work is broken into stages, and each one is a standalone decision. Readiness first, then the build, then launch and scale. Agreeing to the first stage does not commit you to the rest, so you can test the relationship and the results before putting more behind it.

The engagements run from launch and opening through to repositioning. This is not day-to-day management and it is not an agency retainer.

Who we work with

Founders and operators with something worth building.

The newly launched, the just taken over, and the ready to grow. Whatever the sector, whatever the background, wherever you are building from.

We care about founders who get overlooked, and about a good idea getting a fair shot whoever is behind it. That belief shapes how we choose work. It has never been a gate on who can walk through the door.

Start here

Let's build something that lasts.

Tell us what you are working on. You will leave the first conversation with something useful, whether or not we end up working together.

Book a conversation

Or email hello@fbconsultancy.co.uk