 | |
| Industry | Retail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1995 |
| Headquarters | Leamington Spa, United Kingdom |
| Products | Lingerie, swimwear, nightwear, clothing |
| Website | www.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 has 26 stores[2] across the UK 1 store in the US and also sell via mail order, online and via a US website.[3] They are based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and currently employ over 400 people.[4]
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Founder Sarah Tremellen MBE[5] 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.[6]
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.[7]
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.[8]
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.[5] In November 1999, Bravissimo opened its first shop in Ealing which is one of the 16 stores nationwide they currently operate.[8] The next year Mike Tremellen left his job at Tetley to become the business operations director.[5]
In 2001 Bravissimo relocated to their current headquarters in Leamington Spa.[6]
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.[9]
Bravissimo sold a clothing range for a number of years, at one point branding this as "Pepperberry", but the clothing range was discontinued in 2021.[10]
In December 2020, Leanne Cahill, the managing director of Bravissimo, has been elevated to chief executive.[11][12]
Bravissimo has been in the Sunday Times "100 Best Companies to work for" list for since 2007, when they came 19th;[13] in 2018 they were awarded 13th place.[14] 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.[15] They were awarded 99th, 26th,[16] 24th[17] and 8th place respectively between 2008 - 2011.[18] In 2011 Bravissimo was nominated for the Multiple Retailer of the Year award at the UK Lingerie Awards[18]
Sarah Tremellen was awarded an MBE in 2009 in the New Year’s Honours List for services to entrepreneurship.[5] In 2017, Bravissimo won 'best multi-product E-tailer' at the Underlines Stars Awards [19] At the UK Lingerie Awards in 2018, Bravissimo won "Customer Service Provider of the Year",[20] and Sarah Tremellen won the UKLA Lifetime Achievement Award.[21]
