Boohoo founding director invests in Manchester creative agency

Jamal Kamani, one of the founding directors of Boohoo, has invested £100,000 in Manchester-based fashion and footwear creative content agency Crème Creative.

The founders of the agency, Emma and Katie Nattrass-Daniels, had both previously worked at Boohoo and knew Kamani who proposed investing in the business on the back of the quality of the work it produces for well known brands including Foot Asylum, New Balance, Lacoste, Mallet Footwear, isawitfirst.com and Koi Footwear.

“We already knew Jalal because Emma and I worked at Boohoo – it is where we met. He regularly gave us business advice when we asked for it, but it wasn’t until we took on a last minute creative campaign and branding project for him that he saw the quality of work we achieved to tight deadlines, that he proposed investing," managing director  Katie Nattrass-Daniels told Business Quarter.

“Crème Creative was started at a dining room table, without any loans, and it has grown quickly – in the first year we won Lacoste and worked on projects for JD Sports – so the business soon began to turn a profit," she added.

Kamani said he was confident of getting a good return on his investment having taken a 50% stake in the company. “What I saw with Emma and Katie was two talented individuals who have learned quickly on the job and are already doing amazing work with some of the world’s best-known brands.

"They both have the fire and drive needed to keep moving forward and I’m confident that with their creativity, business acumen and people management skills I will get a solid return on my investment over the coming years.”

Kamani was one of the founding directors of Boohoo, of which his brother Mahmud is joint CEO. He stood down as trading director in 2015 but retains a stake in the fast-growing business. Last month gifted a total of 30m shares (representing 2.61% of the company's issued share capital) to a trust established for the benefit of his adult children and earlier this year he sold £14.8m worth of shares.