Retailer who started out in Kirkcaldy bedroom unveils major expansion plans
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Little Lies - a rock 'n roll inspired online boutique - was started by Jade Robertson in Kirkcaldy in 2015 before she set up shop in Dundee city centre three years later as the brand expanded.Just five years after its inception, Jade, whose range includes Boho inspired clothing, homeware and a range of band tees, has amassed almost 125,000 social media followers and dedicated customers around the globe.When Covid-19 hit the business, owners feared long standing expansion plans could be scuppered - but a huge upturn in sales instead followed, allowing the brand to accelerate its growth.Now the firm has quadrupled its workforce, creating nine new jobs at its newly opened HQ in Perthshire, and it has invested over £70,000 to more than double the size of its premises.Jade said the firm planned to move away from its Dundee city centre location to a new facility to cater for its burgeoning online presence.Those plans had to be accelerated after a huge sales spike in the spring - with a new unit in Glencarse, on the A90 between Perth and Dundee identified and transformed into offices, creative space and fulfilment centre for orders flying in from customers as far afield as Germany, Australia, the US and the Middle East.The firm's expansion has allowed it to expand the payroll from three to 12 - with more recruits soon to come on board.
Jade, 31, said: "Like everyone in retail we were really worried when lockdown hit. There was a noticeable drop in sales for a week or two and our city centre store was obviously closed."We re-focussed and redoubled our online efforts - which was how we started and where most of our customers are anyway - and wee saw a huge uptick in sales as we got into April and May and right through the summer."That has allowed us to speed up our expansion plans, closing the city centre store and focusing all our efforts on our online boutique."We have customers around the world - on any given day we are shipping to North America, Europe, Asia as well as within the UK, so we need to expand to cater to them."We've brought in nine new staff so far to cope with the demand and maintain the high level customer service that we endeavour to provide."Our new facility allows us to have our fulfilment team, office staff and creative staff all in one place."We'll be bringing in further creative staff over the coming months - that will create jobs in the creative industry in this area - a sector that has been hit harder than even retail during the pandemic."We're delighted to be able to invest in the local area. It is where I am from, it is where our business started and has grown and it is great to give something back to the community by creating jobs here."
