Livy appoints founder Lisa Chavy as managing director, plans retail expansion in London and Italy

Growing your personal enterprise is a tough artwork. This yr, French premium lingerie label Livy is predicted to high the €24 million mark in gross income, pushed by rising natural gross sales and new retailer openings in France and overseas.

Livy’s strictly French success story in the high-end lingerie section started in 2017 with founder Lisa Chavy, backed by the Etam and Vog teams. In order to bolster its growth, final yr Livy employed Julie Pellet, previously head of progress, product advertising and marketing Southern Europe, at Meta, as managing director. Just underneath a yr later, and even when Livy continues to be thriving, Pellet has stepped down from the put up. “We’re still very much on the same wavelength, but I think it was a little early in the company’s trajectory to introduce a managing director role,” stated Chavy. “I’m upgrading [Livy’s] staff’s skills, and we’re recruiting new heads of retail, wholesale and digital,” she added.

Livy has employed Audrey Azria, previously in cost of retail for western Europe at British lingerie model Agent Provocateur, an indication that Livy is planning to increase the footprint of its collections, which mix glam lingerie, ready-to-wear and stylish life-style merchandise. The new heads of digital and wholesale can be tasked with boosting Livy’s on-line enterprise and forging relationships with new companions, notably with worldwide division retailer chains.

Earlier this yr, Livy carried out a funding spherical to help its expansion plans, and is now tweaking its market positioning to a extra upmarket one than in its early days. It can even must revamp its retailer fleet in order to suit with the brand new positioning. “We’ve closed the stores in Beaugrenelle and Passy in Paris, which were no longer consistent with our style. We’re now performing best [with stores] placed alongside those of luxury labels. We’ve opened in Monte Carlo and Nice, because our swimwear range is extremely successful. In Saint-Tropez, we increased our revenue by two and a half times over the previous year, and we’ve had good results in Marbella,” stated Chavy.

In the identical vein, Livy is ready to open in the Alpine resort of Courchevel this winter, and is planning additional expansion outdoors France, aiming to open a second retailer in London, and new shops in Milan and Rome.