Fay Birmingham
Founder, 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.