Judy Naake MBE - Building the St Tropez cosmetics empire

Nottingham Business School Business Leaders

Judy Naake MBE is best known for the St Tropez fake tan empire that she sold for £70m.

But she was also one of the first entrepreneurs to use celebrity endorsements to promote her business.

Judy told stars like Victoria Beckham and Cat Deeley they could either pay for their new tan or, if they liked what they saw, they could have it free of charge by allowing her to use their names.

Her PR strategy worked. The stars told their friends and fans, St Tropez became a huge success – and Judy was feted as a beauty business guru.

However, before she signed a contract with its American manufacturer, no-one was interested in the tanning cream.

“Everyone in the industry thought I was crazy,” she tells the NBS Business Leaders’ Podcast.

“Several distributors had turned it down… It was dark brown. I slapped it on my legs and thought, this is going to look like hell in the morning!”

But it didn’t. In fact, Judy was so impressed she bought two plane tickets to Los Angeles, where she persuaded the manufacturer to make her St Tropez’s sole British distributor.

Crucially, she also negotiated a distributor’s contract that laid the foundations for her future success.

She says: “It was a very good contract. Because of my knowledge of the beauty business, I knew… if you’re not careful you can build a brand for someone then they say, ‘thank you very much, we’ll do it ourselves now’.”

Judy now advises young entrepreneurs.

In an entertaining interview with Honorary Visiting Professor Mike Sassi, she explains how she honed her business skills working in sales promotion as a 1980s “John Player Girl”.

She also talks about her 25-year entrepreneurial career before she started with St Tropez – including running her dad’s restaurant, in Nottingham city centre.

Judy admits she doesn’t suffer fools – and she only trusts herself. Her experiences tell her that “women still need to work harder than men.”

Despite her business success, she regrets not going to university. Her dad wouldn’t allow it because, in his view, university was a place where “they all took drugs”.

Ironically, Judy was later awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Nottingham.

But her advice to aspiring young entrepreneurs is to trust their intuition.

“Never underestimate your gut [instincts],” she says. “If your gut isn’t happy, don’t do it!”