True Stories

Innovation analyst, Noam Silva, explores how sustainability in retail faces a critical paradox. While 80% of consumers claim they'll pay more for sustainable products, their purchasing decisions tell a different story. As businesses navigate climate commitments and greenwashing concerns, economic pressures threaten to overshadow sustainability initiatives. Yet the path forward is clear: companies must transform their environmental efforts into measurable business value.

Ribble is now the official bike sponsor of the Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team for the 2025 season, powering the women's cycling team to new heights.

The Cotswold Company (TCC) saw Christmas sales surge 22% to £19.9m, B Corp certification, and the opening of its eleventh and twelfth showrooms in Marlow and Harpenden.

We are excited to announce True’s participation in Eyva’s €2.7m Seed funding round co-led with Earlybird and Wenvest.

We are an investment firm dedicated to the consumer and retail sectors, emphasising the significant opportunities for growth and innovation within these markets. With a focus on partnering with founders, we want to use our expertise to help build successful companies and navigate the evolving landscape of consumer and retail.

On Wednesday 20th November, we hosted our latest annual Tech Showcase. The evening brought together leading retail and consumer industry innovators to explore eight cutting-edge technology solutions that are driving top-line growth and bottom-line efficiencies.

We’re excited to announce our strategic partnership with Represent, a UK-based luxury fashion brand reshaping the boundaries of luxury and performance sportswear.

AI is transforming consumer markets by making high-cost services more accessible and affordable. This parallels past tech revolutions, like personal computing and the gig economy, where innovation and cost reduction spurred market expansion. AI's rapid, scalable advancements, championed by major companies, are creating massive new demand. The market potential is vast, with history hinting at billion-dollar opportunities—and we're excited to support founders shaping this future.

Hush has appointed Philip Mountford, former CEO of Hunkemöller and Moss, as its new chairman. With over 40 years of executive retail experience, including his role as Managing Director at Versace and a 15-year tenure as CEO of Hunkemöller, Mountford brings valuable expertise. His appointment follows a successful brand relaunch and strengthens Hush’s leadership as it pursues growth in the UK and internationally.

The Cotswold Company have announced the opening of a delivery driver training academy (CHD) and a further delivery depot, moving them steadily closer to becoming a leading premium homeware brand in the UK.

The retail sector is in constant evolution, shifting in response to the ebb and flow of consumer demands, macroeconomic factors and increasingly, environmental concerns. As the environmental footprint of both retailers and consumers comes under growing scrutiny, we’re closely watching a handful of exciting technologies poised to address these challenges, helping the industry become more sustainable.

The customer contact landscape has undergone a substantial transformation. The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in natural language processing (NLP) and generative AI, has reshaped the customer contact landscape in ways that seemed futuristic just one year ago. This prompted us to revisit and update our research, resulting in our new Customer Contact 3.0 report.