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FP News
Alumni News This is the section of the magazine that we throw open to you, to recognise your lives, interests, and achievements. If you would like to submit an article, photograph, or news piece, please contact the Editor. We want to know about your acquisitions, awards, births, ceremonies, civil partnerships, deaths, graduations, honours, marriages, publications and prizes! Photographs bring any such submission to life, so please append interesting images wherever possible.
Enterprising FP Maths student turned pole dance entrepreneur spins her way to success Former pupil entrepreneur Kirsten Fairlie who quit a promising career to turn her passion for pole dancing into the world’s top polewear resale website Pole Junkie has won the Business of the Year award at a major industry event.
Pole World Festival, which recently took place at the UWE Exhibition and Conference Centre in Bristol, is the biggest UK event of its kind. Individuals and businesses are recognised for their contribution to the pole dance and fitness community in a range of categories – Pole Junkie beat a shortlist of six other companies to take home the Business of the Year award. The accolade is a culmination of almost three years of growth for the Glasgow-based business.
Deciding to take things into their own hands, the duo made an investment of £20k with the majority spent staggering large orders of their favourite brand, US-based Bad Kitty. Starting out of Kirsten’s spare bedroom expecting to sell mostly to friends in the Glasgow pole community, the website unexpectedly took off. In year one, Pole Junkie had a turnover of £235,000, an increase of 1,075% on the entrepreneurs’ initial investment, and the business’ growth has shown no signs of slowing down ever since.
Kirsten Fairlie (27) and her friend Heather Laughland (25), launched Pole Junkie in January 2015. The idea was born over coffee when the pair vented their frustration with the high shipping costs, customs charges and delivery times associated with buying from their favourite polewear brands located overseas.
After this early success, Kirsten and Heather left their full time jobs to focus fully on turning Pole Junkie into a global force. The business is now the world’s leading reseller of polewear offering a huge range of active and performance clothing from international brands, importing from countries including the US, Greece, Australia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
