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Online Lingerie Boutique Figleaves Sold

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 11:28 by Paul Tissington

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Well known for it's vast range of lingerie and reputation for safe online shopping, Figleaves lingerie boutique has been bought for £11.5 million by N Brown - the internet and catalogue home shopping company.

With a customer base of around 1.2 million visiting Figleaves each month, this online retailer has been a first port of call for those who want a safe shopping online experience when buying underwear. Figleaves was established in 1998 and now delivers to over 100 countries, including the UK and USA. Figleaves' popularity has been attributed to its sheer range of lingerie and underwear brands and the fact that it stocks a good selection of bra sizes and equivalently sized swimwear from 28"-56" back size and AA to K cup. The online shop has been a real hit for women wanting to find stylish bras, bikinis and swimsuits in those hard to find sizes.

N Brown may seem like an odd choice of buyer for Figleaves as it is best known for plus-size value brands and Figleaves is rather more aimed at affluent, fashion-forward women shopping online. However industry specialists believe the two businesses can merge well as the typical Figleaves customer is slightly more mature than average, in keeping with the N Brown customer base. Figleaves has also expanded into loungewear and other clothing.

Figleaves is expecting a £23m turnover for the year to June 2010 however it made a loss of £5.8m in the year to June 2009. Carly Syme, retail analyst at Verdict Research commented "With N Brown's financial backing the retailer will be able to focus on driving sales". Some degree of cost reduction through the economies of scale associated with the merger is also anticipated.

As the latest member of the N Brown Group, Figleaves will be adding to a fast growing portfolio of over thirty brands and will continue to provide a convenient and safe shopping online experience for its customers.