I kept my purse empty to encourage my kids to work, says Lady Astor – Sam Cam’s entrepreneur mum

I feel sad,’ says Lady Astor, referring to OKA, the upmarket interiors retailer she founded in 1999. 

The company went into administration in the US and into a company voluntary arrangement in the UK this summer.

Lady Astor – Annabel – who is the mother of Samantha Cameron, the wife of former Prime Minister David Cameron, no longer had any shares in the business and had stepped down from the board, having sold it to Italian private equity group Invest Industrial, which first bought a stake in 2018.

‘I am someone who never looks back. It is on to the next thing.’ 

At 76 she intends to set up another business, though has not yet decided what. 

‘But I need to see what’s in the Budget, before I make a move. 

‘I am concerned about tax and whether they will encourage growth in small companies. The uncertainty acts as a brake on enterprise.

‘Pre-election, Labour weren’t too frightening. But for parents with kids at private school – for so many people that is the only thing they want for a child – it is very worrying for them,’ she says, referring to the Government’s imposition of VAT on school fees.

The general mood, she says, ‘is depressing’, with the feeling of gloom discouraging people from shopping. ‘I certainly think people are holding back, even me. I am being careful in terms of food buying, and I love buying food.’

I meet Lady Astor in Browns Hotel in London, a beautiful, though noisy venue. Looking like an only slightly older version of Samantha, she is graciousness personified, even when I make an embarrassing mess of pouring tea.

Relations: Lady Astor is mother to Samantha Cameron, wife of David Cameron

Although I am here to talk about her life as an entrepreneur, of course I can’t resist quizzing her about politics.

Did Sam mind when David went back into government after the strain of the Brexit referendum psychodrama that saw him ousted?

‘No, because she spent that wonderful time after they left Downing Street just enjoying what she was doing in her own right,’ she says, talking about Cefinn, her fashion brand. 

‘David was just keeping himself busy and optimistic. I don’t think Samantha ever liked the scrutiny in Downing Street, I think that made her very jittery. She and Samantha talk a lot about business, she says. 

‘She and I both like making clothes – we are both crafty people. She is an incredible painter and draughtswoman. 

‘She learned how to cut clothes when she was in Number 10. She was determined on what she was going to do when they left Downing Street.

‘She used to come and help me out at my jewellery business Annabel Jones, she designed my notepaper and my jewellery boxes when she was in her teens.

‘I used to keep my purse really empty to encourage my children to work, you have to.’

Lady Astor says she misses OKA, having resigned earlier this year after being at odds with Invest Industrial over the speed of the US expansion. 

She remained on the board after the 2018 sale, but quit when the Italians turned down her proposal to lead a management buyout. 

‘They had their ideas and what they tried to do was brilliant. It was just I wouldn’t have gone as fast,’ she says.

Some may wonder why she would bother starting a business at all, let alone a new one in her eighth decade.

Her first husband, Samantha’s father, was landowner and baronet Sir Reginald Sheffield. 

Now she lives in Ginge Manor, a 17th century Oxfordshire country house with her second husband, William Waldorf Astor III, the fourth Viscount Astor. 

Annabel had a second daughter, Emily Sheffield, a former editor of the Evening Standard, with Sir Reginald, and has three more adult children with William.

She is the daughter of Pandora Clifford, a society beauty, and Timothy Angus Jones, who was the son of novelist and playwright Enid Bagnold. The latter’s most famous work was National Velvet, a novel turned into a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor.

I set up my own business because I needed to earn 

But, as a young woman, she set up her own business because she needed money. 

‘I didn’t have the financial backing to be able to live without earning and I wasn’t clever enough to be a teacher or a nurse.

‘I was brought up in a world that felt very pre-war. My parents were not money-minded, my father was a scholar, my mother was very beautiful, a very good decorator. All the women around me worked. 

‘My family was very comfortable, but we didn’t have spending money. So if I wanted my own life, to eat in a restaurant or buy some purple suede boots, I had to earn money.

‘This was the Sixties and it was amazing in London. There was no pressure and it was wonderful. Before that, in the years after the war, everything was grey, there was smog and food was horrible. It made me want something different. With OKA there is colour, a lot of joie de vivre.’

She set up OKA 25 years ago. Initially, she worked from a barn at her home, which was used to warehouse imported goods. She recalls having to unload a container of products from a lorry herself.

Her strengths, she says, are ‘merchandising and I am good at analysing data. I have a beady eye on profit margin and cash.

‘I would say to anyone starting a business, make sure you pay yourself. I’m not saying huge amounts, but pay yourself. And keep an eye on working capital, every day.’

I started my first business age 19 in 1967

Her first business was a jewellery shop in London’s Knightsbridge, Annabel Jones. She set it up in 1967, aged just 19, and ran it for 33 years.

‘It was about women buying jewellery for themselves. At the time that was a huge breakthrough because up to then you were given jewellery. I had a great lifestyle with it, but a business mustn’t stagnate and I got to the point where I thought I didn’t know how to take it further, so I sold it.’

As well as her own companies, she has worked as a consultant for Next and for stationery brand Smythsons, where Samantha did holiday work and later became creative director.

She is, she says, fascinated by the detail of how retailers get the products into their stores and the complexities of supply chains.

‘I love logistics. I used to look at Tesco and Sainsbury’s – they are so advanced in their understanding of how to get products on their shelves. I thought, why can’t you get those supermarket principles to ordinary businesses?

‘When you have had a life as a child where you moved around a lot, you want security. There is something about the neatness of numbers that is comforting.’

Business, she concedes, can be stressful, but retirement is not on her radar. 

‘I’m not sure what I want to do next, but I don’t want to retire. I think one doesn’t retire, one only has one life. If you are able, then why should one stop, ever?’

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