White Label celebrates 10 years in business in 2020, but its real history started just after the millennium when directors Katharine Glass and Jo Gumb were teamed up by their employer to launch a new newspaper division in Croydon and Redhill.

In less than three years, they took the Croydon Guardian from a loss-maker to the company’s top performer with a £4m turnover. Almost simultaneously, a talented graphic artist, Andrew Keen, arrived in the UK from Zimbabwe and joined the newspaper company, working out immediately that the best way to boost his pay was to win ‘designer of the month’ every single month of the year.

While the future White Label directors’ team were now together, it still took another seven years for White Label to be created. Katharine became events and marketing manager at Croydon Business, and later the Croydon Economic Development Company; Jo led her company’s digital division and became a publisher while Andrew set up his own design and web company.

And White Label may still not have happened if it hadn’t been for the Great Recession. Jo left the newspaper business following maternity leave and briefly joined forces with Katharine at the Croydon Economic Development company before they both left to set up their own business.

“We realised the CEDC’s days’ were numbered in the recession and Katharine and I had a chat over coffee where we both confessed we had been thinking of starting our own companies – it turned out we’d both really enjoyed our ‘start-up’ days at the Croydon Guardian, and both thought it was time we ran our own show,” said Jo.

“It was definitely going to be more fun working together, so we took on our first contract – working evenings – and built a start-up fund of just £2K to start our own business.”

Two laptops, two mobile phones and an office lease later, White Label was ready to launch in November 2009, when the big freeze hit. Trains shut, roads closed, and even the pavement to the new office in Carolyn House was lethal.

Eventually, the freeze melted and January 24 2010 marked White Label’s official first day in business.
The general consensus was that Jo and Katharine were ‘mad’ – starting a business in the depths of the Great Recession – and in Croydon – the place shortly to be known internationally as the epicentre of the 2011 London Riots.

Early principles included – having fun, creating employment for local staff, supporting family-friendly flexible working and – ‘making it happen’. Core principles which remain strong today.

Early contracts included consultancy, Awards Ceremonies and Town Centre events. The very first event being the launch of the newly refurbished Impact House. Less than three months after White Label’s launch, the CEDC closed and Jo and Katharine found their phones ringing with contacts worried about the town’s economic future.

Katharine suggested a ‘conference’ to get the council and developers talking. “There was no resource or money available at local authority level to make that happen. We thought ‘we’re a marketing company, let’s try and sort this out.’

“A conference would enable communication with the local authority. We took a gamble. Thankfully, the private sector supported us with sponsorship,” and within two months, the first Develop Croydon Conference was staged.

Over 200 delegates booked to attend, and a full day of debates chaired by Jo. “That was a bit of a moment in time,” said Katharine. “It led to us thinking ‘we have done something, what happens next’.”
What followed was creation of the Develop Croydon Forum. Started with just eight members committed to investing in the future of Croydon, the Forum had a budget of less than £20K to change perceptions of the town. It was the beginning of a journey which led to the set-up of a second company – the not-for-profit Develop Croydon Forum CIC (White Label’s Social Enterprise) which now has approximately 70 members and which has been credited with kick-starting the town’s regeneration.

A major early contract included working on communications for Croydon BID during the Riots, when, with the office (and her son’s nursery) closed for safety, Jo relocated to a local cinema so her three-year-old could quietly watch Cars2 while she ‘borrowed’ the electricity from an advertising hoarding to keep the comms operating on her laptop.

In the post-riot depression, Katharine was determined that Croydon – White Label’s home town – would rise from the ashes. She persuaded a range of key players, including the BID, the local authority and shopping centres, to join forces on a series of initiatives to boost the town.

White Label led on Croydon’s Riot Recovery Plan, working on a range of place-making initiatives to support traders in some of the most affected areas. Many of the concepts created to boost the town during this period still continue today – including the South End Food Festival. Still supported by White Label, the festival regularly attracts in excess of 12,000.

The company was growing fast to cope with the contracts – Jo and Katharine were joined by project manager Yolande Carpenter, sales manager Viv Newbould and a very over-qualified administrative assistant called Natasha Cobley who had struggled to find a role in the recession. All three remain with the company, including Natasha who is now White Label’s key conference producer.

And the growth continued. Jo remembers one day when she went straight from briefing Boris Johnson on a conference speech to briefing Basil Brush on how to switch on the Croydon Christmas Lights.

Urgently needing design and website support, Katharine and Jo held a meeting with their old colleague Andrew and left with the same view ‘he’s great, it’s a real shame he has his own company and can’t join ours.’

“Having worked with Katharine very early on in my career I was rather inspired by her creativity to make a potential risk into a profitable asset. I learnt a lot from her by just watching from afar,” said Andrew.

“It was around this time I decided to do what I had always wanted to, which was own my own business.”

Nevertheless, Andrew’s company 2beknown became a key supplier of White Label until September 2012 when the inevitable happened and the two companies merged.

“As fate would have it, our paths – or businesses as it was – crossed again which led to Katharine, Jo and I all working together again,” said Andrew. “As a team of three we complimented each others’ skill sets and as far as project delivery goes from concept to completion this new team was a recipe for success.”