IWD 2025: Chrissie Rucker on 30 years of The White Company

The White Company turns 30 later this year and founder Chrissie Rucker promises there are “lots of very exciting things to come”.

“We’ve made lots of changes to the way we’re doing things,” she says, adding that the retailer plans to put on a “fantastic celebration” to mark the occasion.

“You’re going to see some really exciting new look and feels coming, and we’re just constantly working at trying to improve our service levels and the digital experience.”

Rucker teases that The White Company is planning to release a special 30-year clothing collection and put on a wellness festival.

The milestone is proof of the retailer’s ability to stand the test of time, with the business, which is famous for its white linens and homewares, surviving four recessions and a global pandemic in its lifespan.

Rucker says that the company is ready to face its next challenge as she explains, “costs are rising every which way you turn”.

“Costs are going up and growth isn’t matching that, so it’s a much tougher environment for everyone and you have to look at new ways of being cleverer and more nimble,” she says.

As part of International Women’s Day 2025, Rucker shares her journey of building one of the UK’s fastest-growing multi-channel retailers, balancing it all and the importance of supporting the next generation of women into the workforce.

30 years in the making

Rucker started her career in fashion journalism before she founded The White Company in 1994, having failed to find well-designed, good-quality white bed linen at a reasonable price.

What started off as a mail-order business, now spans across 74 UK stores. The retailer reported a pre-tax profit of £32m against sales of £287m in the year to 29 July 2023.

Rucker shares that her everyday mantra is “to constantly seek to improve” and it’s a term that she’s stuck close to throughout her career.

“Some of the most challenging times [have been] navigating growing pains, keeping up with tech, and the ever-evolving challenge of always having the right people, with the right skills in the right place at the right time.”

Rucker now has a strong team behind her and works alongside chief executive Paula Nickholds, one of the many female leaders she has brought in to spearhead the company over the years.

“I’ve had several female CEOs,” she says proudly, adding: “Our board is completely equally split between men and women and it brings much broader thinking to the business”.

Across the wider business, 86% of The White Company employees are female and 14% are male.

Rucker chose to bring in a chief executive six years into the business “because I knew I wasn’t the person for this role”.

Instead, she prefers to focus on her strengths, “which are keep the brand on track, product development and customer experience”.

Rucker notes that appointing a CEO early on has also helped her to achieve a better work/life balance, including building a family with her husband Nicholas Wheeler, who is the founder of Charles Tyrwhitt.

“It’s a bit easier now, as my children are all in their 20’s and working. To this day, my life is, however, still run off a top-level spreadsheet,” she explains.

“It starts with the year ahead, family holidays go in first, then special family commitments and special projects throughout the year – and then daily work has to work around this.”

However, Rucker quickly prefaces: “I thrive on being busy, and actually, I love a challenge and a project. I love my life and so I’m not ready to hang up the boots yet.”

The White Company offers flexible working for its head office, with team members expected to be in the office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with the option to work from home Mondays and Tuesdays.

Giving back

It is no secret that Rucker is proud of the company she’s built up, but many people will be less familiar with her philanthropic work with The King’s Trust, formerly The Prince’s Trust, in supporting the next generation to enter the workforce.

“I think that’s really why I love The King’s Trust so much; it’s all about helping young people to find their confidence when they’ve been through lots of really tough situations,” Rucker says.

The retail founder became a founding patron of the Trust’s Women Supporting Women in 2018 and later the #ChangeAGirl’sLife campaign in 2020.

Rucker explains that WSW was created as the Trust found that it was helping fewer young women than young men, “and they wanted to change that”.

“We started off with a core group of patrons and ambassadors, and the aim was to grow that,” Rucker says, explaining that she had “tried to gather together some brilliant female business owners and philanthropists”.

The King’s Trust counts M&S non-executive director Cheryl Potter and former NatWest CEO Alison Rose among its list of founding patrons.

“All the patrons and ambassadors commit to supporting at a certain level, and then over the last six years, we’ve continued to grow that group to make it much bigger,” she says.

Rucker makes her philanthropy a company-wide affair, and the business regularly fundraises for charity.

“One of the best fundraising things we ever did – I actually stole the idea from the Children’s prep school – was we created this thing called Chrissie’s Challenge,” she explains.

“We broke the business down into teams and so every store became a team, every department became a team.

“We gave everybody £50, and we said, ‘Go away and take that £50 and make as much as you possibly can’ and it was just a brilliant thing to do, literally, everybody got involved,” she says.

“The marketing team organised a ball, the PAs had a six o’clock drinks trolley, the creative team were making beautiful, fingerprinted Christmas cards, and everybody was doing something and selling it for the charity,” Rucker says.

The White Company also sells a Love Candle all year round, where a £10 contribution from the sale goes to The King’s Trust. It also hosts the Brilliant Breakfast to raise funds for the charity.

Despite building a multi-million-pound business and creating one of the most recognisable brands on the high street, Rucker is making a lasting impact not just in people’s homes but inspiring the next generation of female entrepreneurs.

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