I had one phone call with the CEO and COO. I talked in detail about the target audience, as I am a previous customer. I talked about similar challenges of audience decline causing commercial difficulties from previous clients such as M&S. I wasn’t impressed with the questions I was asked and the leadership team seemed out of touch as they weren’t asking the right questions and seemed to have no idea about their customers. I certainly got the impression the CEO wanted to hire someone who wouldn’t ask difficult questions and just say what she wanted to hear. I was a happy customer before I interviewed with Sarah Raven but after my interview process I certainly feel the company is not progressive, accessible or inclusive as they seemed to place emphasis on having someone in the office full time rather than just finding the best candidate based on skillset. I feel that this discriminates against me as a woman and a mother (the core Sarah Raven audience) and as this feels extremely unethical and as a consumer is important to me I won’t be buying products from the company anymore. I didn’t get the job and I received feedback about the interview that was total fiction and not based on anything that actually happened in the interview or my profile. For example one reason I was told I didnt get the role is because they said they hired someone who was immediately available. I was also immediately available! I feel that they just wanted someone full time in the office; I was available fractionally because I have young children. My hunch about the lack of open-minded ness and discrimination now seems correct because I can see from LinkedIn that a less experienced man has been hired full time for the role. It is really disappointing to see a company operate this way in 2023.