Jacqueline Gold is a fighter. She has been to the High Court to fight for Ann Summers to be able to advertise vacancies in Jobcentres, and she savaged Ken Livingstone last year when he banned the retailer's advertisements on the Underground.

“When I feel something's unjust, I have to challenge it because it winds me up so much,” she says.

Consistently hailed as one of Britain's most successful businesswomen, Ms Gold has battled against scepticism in the boardroom and her own personal demons during her 30-year career.

These demons came to light last year when Ms Gold brought out an autobiography revealing that her stepfather had sexually assaulted her as a child and that she was bullied at school.

At 19 she leapt at the chance to help out at Gold Star Publications, run by her father, David Gold. At the time, in 1979, it published top-shelf magazines and owned a handful of Ann Summers stores.

After two years she went to a Pippa Dee party, a Tupperware party with lingerie, and on seeing what a great time the women were having, decided to launch Ann Summers parties. She convinced her father and his directors and the legend was born.

On becoming chief executive of Ann Summers in 1987 she began to overhaul a business that had been seen as a haunt of the dirty mac brigade.

Fans claim she has since liberated armies of women by helping to change British attitudes to sex. “I have always thought that women should be able to enjoy their sexuality despite whatever opposition there has been to it,” she says.

The likes of Coco de Mer and Agent Provocateur have thrived on the back of that liberation and pinch some of Ann Summers's business. The new Ann Summers strategy unveiled by Ms Gold signals that her latest fightback has begun.