A Dundee fashion shop has closed after Covid-19 accelerated plans to move the business online.
Little Lies opened in Union Street three years ago but the boutique has decided not renewed its lease.
Booming online sales during lockdown saw the company expand its workforce and it has now opened a new headquarters in Glencarse, Perthshire.
The firm added nine new jobs and invested over £70,000 in its new premises.
Jade Robertson, who founded the company from her bedroom in Kirkcaldy five years ago, 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 refocussed and redoubled our online efforts – which was how we started and where most of our customers are anyway – and 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 focussing all our efforts on our online boutique.”
The retailer whose range includes Boho inspired clothing, homeware and a vast range of band T-shirts – have amassed almost 125,000 social media followers and dedicated customers around the globe.
Ms Robertson said she was sad to close the doors on her Dundee premises but said the growth of the brand meant more space was required.
She said: “The face to face connection with our customers was amazing and we loved being able to showcase our products to them, interact with them and get that immediate feedback. It has definitely informed the way we will work going forward.
“But the lease was up on the shop and we needed a bigger space – we were bursting at the seams and needed to add staff.
“We could have looked for a bigger shop with bigger non retail space – but we made the choice to focus all our energies online just now where we have seen phenomenal growth this year.
“But we will definitely be back in terms of that face to face contact with our customers in the future.”
“Our new headquarters means we can increase our stock holding and processing space and be able to do all our creative work from the same premises.”
The new unit in Glencarse, on the A90 between Perth and Dundee, has offices, a creative space and fulfilment centre.
The company also plans to hire further creative staff in the coming months to bolster their online content and design teams.
“On any given day we are shipping to North America, Europe, Asia as well as within the UK,” said Ms Robertson.
“That customer base seems to be growing and staying loyal, 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 – we pride ourselves on the quality of content we create for our social media channels and are moving in to designing more of our own clothing and homeware lines in house.
“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.”
