
COVER EXCLUSIVE: How The Fetishistas’ February 2023 cover story broke the news that Yummy Gummy founder Rebecca Allsop (pictured above) was putting the business up for sale
Yummy Gummy resurfaces! Sheet latex brand finds German buyer
Legendary British custom latex sheeting and clothing brand Yummy Gummy – supplier of custom patterns and colour-mixes to numerous latex fashion labels – is finally set to reappear under new German owners, after more than a year on the market. Having broken the full story of Yummy Gummy’s closure in February 2023, Tony Mitchell links up with brand founder Rebecca Allsop and her German buyers, Yuki and Ruka of Se’tyo (pictured in banner image above), to get the full story of Yummy Gummy’s imminent return
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.
“We have quite some experience in latex and are looking forward to combining this with Rebecca’s knowledge. Latex sheeting will not be the only thing we do, but we are gonna try to properly reproduce and evolve Yummy Gummy as part of our project.”
When can old and potential new customers expect the new Yummy Gummy to be open for business?
Promises Rebecca: “I’ll be around for the first six months, quite hands-on, to make sure they are making and creating to a satisfactory standard. After that I can be called upon for help and design work. I’ll let Ruka and Yuki answer with their predictions. Maybe it will be in time for Christmas?!
How long until Yummy Gummy resurfaces?
“There is definitely a plan to provide Christmas presents,” the new owners confirm. “We expect to be setting up in steps. We would be happy to have a bunch of things available during autumn — at least parts of the portfolio and pre-order options — and to get to the full experience step by step.
“We also have a lot of ideas for new things, but still need to set up the workshop and get things running. We will keep progress up to date on social media.”
Now that everything is moving inexorably towards the relaunch of Yummy Gummy as a German business, how do the brand’s founder and its new owners reflect on the fortuitous events that brought the three of them together?
“It’s been a nerve-wracking year-and-a-half for me without Yummy Gummy,” Rebecca confesses. “I considered just trashing and recycling it all just to create closure for myself.
“It didn’t feel right, though, and when Yuki reached out in April this year I almost let the email slip me by, not expecting much and having been let down by quite a few interested persons.
“Yuki persisted, however, and followed up the email — and I finally replied. Germany was not what I’d wanted for the business but the two women’s enthusiasm and drive gave me something to seriously consider.
“Yummy Gummy needed someone as driven and passionate for creativity as I was — it doesn’t run itself, it’s run on passion for patterns and colour.
“Se’tyo showed me they had this, as they travelled all the way to the UK to view the workshop in person and we had a ‘serious chat’.
“They are lovely, friendly, apparently quite ‘French-like’ Germans with a passion for creativity and a sprinkling of engineering problem-solving (something that is very necessary when working with liquids and flat surfaces).
“They were as perfect as I could ask for, so I agreed to sell Yummy Gummy over EU borders in the knowledge that it would be in the right hands to take it on and do it justice.
Add Yuki and Ruka: “Back then, we were somehow sure that there would already be an inheritor [of the brand] and that it was only a matter of time until Yummy Gummy would reappear.
“When we reached out, we halfway expected to get that as a response. It was a matter of course to us to make a visit to England, and we are absolutely motivated to carry on the spirit and creativity of Yummy Gummy.
“We did restructure our planned design business in the last months to be able to do this properly, mixing it in with our ideas. And of course, Rebecca will always be welcome to visit us, if there should come a day when she misses Yummy Gummy. Rebecca, you’ll always be a part of it!”
SE’TYO
Luppenstraße 26, 04177 Leipzig, Germany
+49 176 9993 6836
setyo.de
Editor’s note: Thanks to Macaire Montini for sending the email that set this story in motion!