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Bravissimo (company)

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Bravissimo
IndustryRetail
Founded1995
HeadquartersLeamington Spa, United Kingdom
ProductsLingerie, swimwear, nightwear, clothing
Websitewww.bravissimo.com www.bravissimo.com/us

Bravissimo is a lingerie retailer that provides lingerie in D-L cup sizes and swimwear in a D-K cup range.[1] It currently has 29 stores[2] across the UK and also sell via mail order, online and via a US website.[3] They are based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire and currently employ over 850 people.[4] Bravissimo also sell clothing, once known as 'Pepperberry', launched in March 2011. The company has now rebranded this as Bravissimo Clothing to provide continuity between products.[5]

History

Bravissimo store

Founder Sarah Tremellen MBE[6] began as a freelance TV and radio researcher for the BBC before quitting eight months later aged 25 to have a baby. Whilst pregnant, Tremellen found it difficult to find a good choice of bras that would fit her when she went up to a G Cup.[7]

In 1995 after giving birth, Tremellen and her friend Hannah Griffiths tried to do something about it. They decided to take an eight-week business course which culminated in presenting a business plan to their local bank manager. Their presentation won them a £10,000 bank loan to help them start Bravissimo.[8]

Working in Tremellen's living room of her Twickenham flat, they made a catalogue to sell by mail order with all the best bras they could find and started a mailing list of around 75 people—mostly friends and family. Tremellen then telephoned several women's magazines and newspapers, and within a month got coverage in the Daily Mail bringing in 1,000 requests for a catalogue.[9]

In 1996 they were able to move out of Tremellen's Twickenham flat and 12 months later Tremellen and her husband Mike bought Hannah Griffiths out of the business.[6] In November 1999, Bravissimo opened its first shop in Ealing which is one of the 21 stores nationwide they currently operate.[9] The next year Mike Tremellen left his job at Tetley to become the business operations director.[6]

In 2001 Bravissimo relocated to their current headquarters in Leamington Spa.[7]

In 2017, Bravissimo launched its US website and began looking for its first US shop site. In the same year their sales grew by 2% to £50.2 million, but pre-tax profit decreased to £2.2 million from £3.3 million a year earlier, partly owing to spending on new shops.[10]

Awards

Bravissimo has been in the Sunday Times "100 Best Companies to work for" list for since 2007 when they came 19th [11] and in 2018 they were awarded 13th place.[12] The list rates a company's performance on 8 key factors which takes into account things such as pay, leadership, social impact and personal growth.[13] They were awarded 99th, 26th,[14] 24th[15] and 8th place respectively between 2008 - 2011.[16] In 2011 Bravissimo was nominated for the Multiple Retailer of the Year award at the UK Lingerie Awards[16]

Sarah Tremellen was awarded an MBE in 2009 in the New Year’s Honours List for services to entrepreneurship.[6] In 2017, Bravissimo won 'best multi-product E-tailer' at the Underlines Stars Awards [17] At the UK Lingerie Awards in 2018, Bravissimo won "Customer Service Provider of the Year",[18] and Sarah Tremellen won the UKLA Lifetime Achievement Award.[19]

References

  1. ^ "Bravissimo Company Profile - Best Companies". Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  2. ^ "Stores". Bravissimo. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  3. ^ "Pepperberry helps spice up Bravissimo performance". Drapers online. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  4. ^ "Accreditation". Best Companies. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  5. ^ "Discover Bravissimo". Bravissimo. Archived from the original on 11 March 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d "Bravissimo founder honoured with MBE after starting firm from home". Birmingham Post. 31 December 2008. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  7. ^ a b "Sarah Tremellen: Founder of Bravissimo". Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  8. ^ "Bravissimo". Archived from the original on 25 November 2011. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  9. ^ a b Grossman, Wendy (2 December 2002). "Starting Out". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 August 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  10. ^ "Lingerie firm Bravissimo is ready to make it big Stateside". Evening Standard.
  11. ^ "The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For list". Sunday Times. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  12. ^ "The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies". Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  13. ^ "What is employee engagement? - Best Companies". Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  14. ^ "百度--您的访问出错了". hi.baidu.com. Retrieved 17 August 2018.[dead link]
  15. ^ Universityguru (10 November 2010). "UniversityGuru: 100 Best Companies to work for 2010". Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  16. ^ a b "Lingerie Awards Finalists Revealed". Lingerie Insight. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  17. ^ "Congratulations to the 2017 Stars!". Stars Underlines. 10 November 2017.
  18. ^ "UKLA 2018 winner: Customer Service Provider of the Year - Lingerie Insight". 20 February 2018. Archived from the original on 16 August 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  19. ^ "UKLA 2018 winner: Lifetime Achievement Award - Lingerie Insight". 20 February 2018. Archived from the original on 16 August 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
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