Yummy Gummy, the British artisan producer of decorative latex sheeting which closed in January 2023, is to return later this year under new German ownership.

As reported in full in our February 2023 cover story, Yummy Gummy founder Rebecca Allsop had taken the difficult decision to put her ten-year-old business — a unique source of custom latex sheeting much prized among clothing designers — on the market, after experiencing burnout.

Her ambition was to find a buyer in the UK to purchase not just the brand but also all her specialist manufacturing equipment such as the latex production tables with safety glass work surfaces.

In addition, because of the highly specialised skills involved in producing the sheeting, Rebecca proposed that she would need to work with any new owner for six months to a year in order to transfer her knowledge of how to produce the sheets from liquid latex.

It seemed to Rebecca — and us — that such a unique opportunity would surely be grabbed by one of the several large UK latex clothing companies with the resources necessary to invest in becoming the new supplier of Yummy Gummy sheeting to the global latex fashion industry.

However,  although some interest was shown by UK businesses, none ultimately saw fit to seize the opportunity Allsop was offering them.

But then, out of the blue, some 15 months after first putting her business up for sale, she received interest from German brand Se’tyo. And although she had been hoping to keep Yummy Gummy in the UK, Se’tyo’s interest felt just too serious to ignore.

BOW BELLE: Yummy Gummy founder Rebecca

“As much as I would have liked to have kept Yummy Gummy local,” says Rebecca (above), “the lovely Ruka and Yuki of Se’tyo reached out to me from Germany. They were very keen and soon came to view the workshop.

“We spoke about the legacy of Yummy Gummy and I felt confident that they understood what Yummy Gummy was and could be. They were sensitive to it being ‘my baby’ and realised that they would need to learn a lot to be able to do it justice.”

Yuki and Ruka: the view from Leipzig

At this point Yuki and Ruka themselves join the chat from Leipzig, the German city many fetish fans will probably associate with the massive annual goth-fetish crossover festival Wave-Gotik-Treffen (WGT).

“Somehow we felt a little bad for not being British,” the pair begin, “but we think our home base not too far from Berlin is not the worst place for offering fetish products!

“We had found it quite challenging to get the material we needed for clothing design, which Se’tyo was originally supposed to be.

“Soon the idea of integration of some sort of sheet production came up, and grew quite quickly to what it has become now, including a ton of ideas for new products. We feel honoured for being trusted so much by Rebecca.”

So at this point, what can Rebecca, Yuki and Ruka reveal about the basic operational arrangements covered by the sale?

“Everything is going out to Leipzig,” Rebecca explains. “It’s going to be a big ol’ move but I have been packing for a few weeks. Suppliers [of raw materials] will still be the same, and I will be going out to Germany to teach Se’tyo everything I know.

“I’ll be around to consult and help, but Ruka and Yuki are creative people and I am sure they will be able to pick up the fundamentals of latex-making quite quickly. This is exactly what I had in mind for Yummy Gummy.

Add Yuki and Ruka: “We rented a nice workshop which we are preparing right now for taking the equipment, and to set up production at about the same size, for sheet production as well as clothing design.