A SWINDON-BASED lingerie retailer has won a national award.

Staff at Lingerie Outlet Store on Shrivenham Road were thrilled when they were chosen to be the winners of the Specialist Lingerie E-Tailer award at a ceremony in London last week.

Clare Haines started the company nine years ago as a brick-and-mortar shop, then decided to sell online exclusively via eBay.

When close friend Melissa Burton joined her shortly afterwards, the dynamic duo of directors boosted their business from strength to strength.

Clare said: “It was a really great night, when they called our name as the winners I was shaking from head to toe.

“The award was voted for by the suppliers then a panel of judges chose the winner out of 12 finalists.

“It really means a lot, they’ve seen how much we’ve grown, how we run the business and how we look after our customers, so it’s nice to be rewarded.

“It’s a very prestigious and well-respected award and it’s the first time we entered ourselves for it, so we’re delighted to win it.”

The business has grown by 2,000 per cent in the last two years and all of its stock is sent out from a warehouse in County Business Park.

In 2015, they had £50,000 in sales and this year is forecasted to bring in £8 million.

In 2011, the Lingerie Outlet Store won the Wiltshire Small Business of the Year Award and they are currently the largest independent seller of lingerie in the UK, with 60 different brands on offer.

Clare added: “We want to be world-dominating.

“If we could take over the world with knickers and bras, we would.

“We are determined and competitive, we are 100 per cent committed to lingerie, and we offer first-class customer service.”

Clare focuses on marketing and sales while Melissa manages the financial side of the firm.

Melissa said: “This award is a real credit to our team, we are here because of them, they really get stuck in and they’re very dedicated workers.

“They have had a steep learning curve over the past few years as we’ve been constantly changing and growing, developing our infrastructure and taking on more staff.

“We are constantly re-defining how we do things, embracing new technologies and looking for opportunities to improve.

“It’s a state-of-the-art business and we’re still growing.

“We dispatch more than 1,000 orders a day.

“Soon we will be expanding into two more units.”