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Bravissimo is a
Founder Sarah Tremellen
before quitting eight months later aged 25 to have a baby. Whilst pregnant, Tremellen found it difficult to find a good choice of lingerie
Lingerie (, , ) is a category of primarily women's clothing including undergarments (mainly brassieres), sleepwear, and lightweight robes. The choice of the word is often motivated by an intention to imply that the garments are alluring, fashio ...
retailer that provides lingerie in D-L cup sizes and swimwear in a D-K cup range. It has 26 stores across the UK and also sell via mail order
Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
* Sending an order form in the mail
* Placing a telephone call
* Placing a ...
, online and via a US website. They are based in Leamington Spa
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
, and currently employ over 600 people.
History
Founder Sarah Tremellen MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
began as a freelance TV and radio researcher for the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...bra
A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, or ; ), is a form-fitting undergarment that is primarily used to support and cover breasts. It can serve a range of other practical and aesthetic purposes, including enhancing or reducing the appea ...
s that would fit her when she went up to a G Cup.
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.
Working in Tremellen's living room of her Twickenham
Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...
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
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' bringing in 1,000 requests for a catalogue.
In 1996 they were able to move out of Tremellen's Twickenham
Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...
flat and 12 months later Tremellen and her husband Mike bought Hannah Griffiths out of the business. In November 1999, Bravissimo opened its first shop in Ealing
Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was histor ...
which is one of the 21 stores nationwide they currently operate. The next year Mike Tremellen left his job at Tetley
Tetley is an English beverage manufacturer founded in 1837 in Yorkshire. It is the largest tea company in the United Kingdom and Canada, and the second largest in the United States by volume.
Since 2000, Tetley has been a wholly owned subsidiar ...
to become the business operations director.
In 2001 Bravissimo relocated to their current headquarters in Leamington Spa
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...
.
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.
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.
Management
In December 2020, Leanne Cahill, the managing director of Bravissimo, has been elevated to chief executive.Awards
Bravissimo has been in ''the Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' "100 Best Companies to work for" list for since 2007, when they came 19th; in 2018 they were awarded 13th place. 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. They were awarded 99th, 26th, 24th and 8th place respectively between 2008 - 2011.
In 2011 Bravissimo was nominated for the Multiple Retailer of the Year award at the UK Lingerie Awards
Sarah Tremellen was awarded an MBE in 2009 in the New Year’s Honours List for services to entrepreneurship.
In 2017, Bravissimo won 'best multi-product E-tailer' at the Underlines Stars Awards At the UK Lingerie Awards in 2018, Bravissimo won "Customer Service Provider of the Year", and Sarah Tremellen won the UKLA Lifetime Achievement Award.
References
External links
* {{Lingerie British companies established in 1995 Clothing companies established in 1995 Retail companies established in 1995 Lingerie brands Clothing retailers of England Clothing companies of England