Howard Bryant: chief financial officer, Figleaves.com.

PositionONE2ONE - Interview

How is the online underwear business doing these days?

Very well, thank you. People are still wearing underwear, which is very comforting in these difficult times.

Figleaves.com is still in business, which is more than can be said for a lot of dot-com enterprises that started at the same time.

We started as a technology company making software for the internet and then developed into a retailer, so we had a very strong infrastructure to begin with. When we started during the 2000 dot-com bubble there were a lot of ideas floating around, but many had no real substance behind them. Fortunately, we had both. One of the reasons why we're still here is that we didn't throw a lot of money at marketing the company until we got the infrastructure and organisation right.

The company's growth has been impressive: sales are doubling every year.

The previous time I spoke to Financial Management ("Vested interest", December 2001), the company was taking something like 500 orders a day. It had 60 employees and an annual turnover of 5m [pounds sterling]. Today we handle about 2,000 orders a day, employ 250 people and turn over 20m [pounds sterling] a year. We've also just won Retail Week's award for online retailer of the year, beating the likes of Tesco and Argos. So we're quite happy with the way things are progressing.

And you've expanded across the Atlantic.

The US now makes up 20 per cent of our business and the potential is fantastic. The dynamic is different over there: if you go to an underwear store in that country, the choice is limited to black, white and nude colours. We have a massive opportunity to educate US shoppers and show them all the fabulous stuff" that's available. They have Victoria's Secret, but that's mainly made up of one brand. We offer more than 200 brands, so we think we can give the US a run for its money.

What's the secret of your company's success?

Good marketing. Our key is empathy--it's all about discovering what the customers want. We're asking ours how we can help them through all the different phases in their lives, from fashion to bridal to maternity and so on.

Is the business affected by general economic trends?

It's hard to say exactly why people choose to shop they way they do. What we do know is that, whatever the economic climate, people want some sort of luxury in their lives and underwear is often what they go for. The other thing we know for certain is that the demand is out there--and it's keen.

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