Derbyshire couple celebrate success after nightwear company turns over £2.4 million in pyjama sales following surge in demand

Derbyshire couple Charlotte and Daniel Hawthorne launched clothing company Night – which specialises in sleepwear – in June 2019, in the hope of marrying Charlotte’s fashion experience and her husband’s marketing expertise as part of their new venture.

The pair who are both directors and co-owners, grew up in the region, with 31-year-old Charlotte living in Brampton while 33-year-old Daniel spent his youth in Taxal in Whaley Bridge.

Despite having moved to Macclesfield, the couple have maintained their Derbyshire roots and are even providing jobs in the county, as their five-strong team are based on the Bingswood Industrial Estate, Whaley Bridge.

The Night brand operates out of the same office that Dan’s father used to house his former fashion accessories brand, Hot House, in almost 20 years ago.

Charlotte and Dan initially spent £3,000 setting up the sleepwear brand which specialises in matching sets of pyjamas, nightwear and dressing gowns over two years ago and have now turned over £2.4 million in sales following a surge in sales that first started in March 2020.

Night’s clothing is now sold wholesale to retailers such as Asos and 50 other stores across the UK, with the couple confirming that the brand is ‘only growing’ as celebrities such as reality TV star Gemma Collins are seen wearing the brand.

Charlotte studied fashion at university, previously worked as a buyer in Manchester for fast fashion e-commerce brands such as Boohoo, Matalan and I Saw It First.

"That's where the fashion side of it comes from, I was buying nightwear prior to leaving my last job and really what made us come up with the idea for a nightwear brand was the growth that I had seen in nightwear since I had been working in the category", Charlotte said.

Dan used his experience as a group marketing manager to design and brand the sleepwear company and get the Night website up and running, after the couple decided to go full force and launch the clothing business while they on holiday in Spain.

"We actually work really well together because we are really different but we compliment each other with our abilities”, Charlotte added.

"So Dan is a really good communicator, he is great with people whereas I would say I am more of an introvert and more in the detail of things."

The director and co-owner said they witnessed a steady growth after they first launched but orders really ‘stepped up’ in the last year, particularly following a surge in demand at the start of the first lockdown and again throughout autumn and winter 2020.

Charlotte continued: "It was sort of a surprise, it was one of those things where one thing led to another and then very quickly it snowballed.

"Obviously, autumn/winter is the biggest season generally for nightwear and I would say it was really last August/September time where we saw orders really increase to the point where we were able to sort of focus all of our efforts on it full time which was really good.

"It's been quite unbelievable the speed at which it has grown and the level it has grown.”

From January 2021 to June, Night turned over double what they turned over last year alone, with the co-owner sharing that while lockdown helped the company’s growth trajectory ‘speed up’ it was a stepping stone and now customers have heard of the brand they are returning.

Charlotte and Daniel left their jobs to work on the brand full time and recruited two extra workers at the start of this year as they cautiously expand their team in line with their growing sales.

"We are the only sort of people for miles around doing what we are doing in this kind of area”, Charlotte added.

"The closest would be Manchester where you've got quite a lot of the big fashion brands but it is quite nice for us to be in Derbyshire and to be able to create jobs for people in the area and breathe new life into this area."

The directors hope to continue to grow the wholesale side of their business are in talks with brands who want to buy Night to sell on their own websites, as as continuing to push sales through their own site and selling directly to consumers.

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