Woman who started £12m business in mum's kitchen announces 'heartbreaking' closure

Mollie-May Rossi started the fashion label Caramella on her mum's kitchen table nearly 10 years ago while studying for a psychology degree and juggling a part-time job as a waitress.

She had borrowed £500 from her dad to set up the brand, which went on to achieve nearly £12m in sales and serve more than 250,000 customers.

But this week the 28-year-old announced she had made the difficult decision to close down her company, which ceased trading on Wednesday.

"Coming to terms with that reality has been heartbreaking," Rossi explained in a social media post to her customers.

"There were times I took out personal loans to ensure wages were paid because giving up was never something I was willing to do lightly," she said.

"For many years, I put the business ahead of my own mental health and wellbeing, and the truth is, I eventually burnt out.

"I explored every possible avenue to continue the business, including our rebrand in January, which received an incredible response from our community.

"However, while we experienced many successful years, more recently we suffered devastating losses, and unfortunately those losses have now reached a point where continuing is no longer possible."

Rossi first launched the business, which was based in Wirral on Merseyside, solely as an Instagram page, and grew a loyal customer base.

Initially, she would buy products from Italy - this was the inspiration behind the name Caramella, which translates as sweet in Italian.

"We were selling probably like 10 orders a week," she said.

"Then when I left uni, I just transitioned into it full-time.

"I quit my job and my family were like 'what the hell are you doing?' but I just took the leap."

The fashion company quickly grew from those humble beginnings.

She counts a six-week pop-up at Liverpool One shopping centre in 2023 and seeing more 300 people wearing her clothes at Aintree racecourse the following year as some of her highlights.

But in recent years Rossi said she had noticed a "shift in the economy" and her current business model was "no longer sustainable".

"Shein and Temu were providing clothing that was similar to what we were selling," she explained.

"So we basically didn't have a chance really and we had to make a change.

"We said 'Right, we're going to completely design everything ourselves now'.

"So that's when I took on my business partner in January and we started producing all of our own goods.

"Basically we've given it a shot since January for five months but it's too costly to do it."

She said having to make her team of employees, which included members of her family, redundant had been heartbreaking.

Despite this, Rossi said she was still glad she had taken the risk to design their own products.

"I think we needed to give it one last shot," she said.

"It was more like one last shot for me because last year was really bad.

"We probably couldn't have continued doing what we were doing anyway because we were losing money and the costs were so, so high."

Now, after welcoming a little boy eight weeks ago, Rossi said she was looking forward to enjoying some newborn cuddles before deciding on her next professional chapter.

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