UK fashion giant crashes out of business – launched in 2017 | UK | News
Mollie-May at pop-up store Caramella in Liverpool One. (Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
One of England’s greatest style success stories, created from scratch in the Liverpool kitchen, has ended in “devastating losses”. Fashion brand Caramella was founded by Mollie-May Rossi in 2017 with a £500 loan while balancing university studies and a part-time job as a waitress.
It eventually reached 250,000 customers and gained support from reality TV personalities from shows including The Real Housewives of Cheshire, Love Island and The Only Way Is Essex. But despite rebranding in January to battle global brand rivals such as Shein and Temu, the 28-year-old announced a trading halt on Wednesday.
Mollie-May was devastated to have to close her fashion brand (Image: Liv Echo)
She shared: “It was heartbreaking to face this reality. There were times when I took out personal loans to ensure fees were paid because giving up was never something I was willing to do.”
Mollie-May started the fashion brand at her mother’s kitchen table nearly 10 years ago, while studying psychology and working a part-time job as a waitress.
Based in Wirral in Merseyside, she first set up the business as just an Instagram page and has built up a loyal customer base.
He had borrowed £500 from his father to set up the brand; the brand achieved sales of approximately £12 million and served more than 250,000 customers.
Initially, he was purchasing products from Italy; this was the inspiration behind the name Caramella, which means sweet in Italian.
He explained: “We were probably selling 10 orders a week. Then when I left university I went into it full time. I quit my job and my parents were like ‘what the hell are you doing?’ he said. But I only took one step.”
The fashion company has grown rapidly from these humble beginnings, with highlights including a six-week pop-up at Liverpool One shopping center in 2023 and Aintree racecourse the following year seeing more than 300 people wearing its clothes.
But he realized in recent years that there had been “a shift in the economy” and that the current business model was “no longer sustainable”.
Mollie-May said: “Shein and Temu were supplying clothes similar to what we were selling, so we were really out of luck and had to make a change.
“We said, ‘Okay, now we’re going to design everything ourselves.’ That’s when I hired my business partner in January and we started manufacturing all of our products ourselves.
“We’ve basically tried this for five months since January, but it’s too costly to do.”
Mollie-May founded fashion brand Caramella in 2017 (Image: Caramel)
He said this week he made the difficult decision to close his company.
In a social media post to clients, she continued: “For years I put work ahead of my own mental health and well-being, and the truth is that I eventually burned out.
“I explored every possible way to continue the business, including our rebrand in January, which received an incredible response from our community.
“However, while we have had many successful years, we have recently experienced devastating losses, and unfortunately, these losses have reached a point where they are no longer sustainable.”
The heartbroken entrepreneur said it was heartbreaking to have to lay off his team of employees, including family members.
Despite this, he said in January that he was still happy to take the risk of designing his own products.
“I think we had to give it one last chance,” he said. “It was more like a last chance for me because last year was really bad.
“We probably couldn’t continue what we were doing anyway because we were losing money and the costs were very, very high.”
After welcoming a little boy eight weeks ago, he said he’s looking forward to spending some time with his family before deciding on his next project.
He concluded: “It was heartbreaking to have to leave the most amazing team of people, including my family.
“Achieving this at such a precious stage of being a new mother has been incredibly difficult and has consumed me since the day my baby was born. “I’ve reached a point where I have to put myself and my baby first.
“Thank you to our incredibly loyal community and every single person who supports Caramella, whether they have placed an order, followed our journey, worn our pieces, or simply believe in the brand.
“No matter what happens next, I will always be proud of what we have built together and will be forever grateful to everyone who has been a part of this journey.
“I will reflect on what we have accomplished and find peace in knowing that I truly gave this everything I had. This is goodbye for now.”
