You’ve heard it all before. Credit crunch. Mass unemployment. Falling property prices. Empty pension funds.

Cue the violins!

But before you reach for that paracetamol cocktail, you might want to consider reaching for the underwear drawer. No, not that one with the regular knickers; the one where you keep the good stuff.

Because apparently? Despite retail profits falling left, right, and centre as consumers tighten their belts and cut back on spending, one of the world’s top high-end lingerie brands, Agent Provocateur, is spurning the downturn and opening new stores across the world.

In the last year, while most people were worrying about job security and paying the mortgage, a good number of people were more interested in getting it on.

In the last 12 months to company has opened 13 new stores, having expanded to the US, Russia, Dubai and Hong Kong, from its original home store in London’s Soho.  Even despite the expansion, sales figures are healthy and profits are growing.

Moreover, Ann Summers, the UK’s largest affordable erotic shopping brand, announced that sales over the Valentine’s Day period broke all previous sales records for the company.

The healthy growth in the erotic shopping industry is being attributed to more couples staying in together as they try to cut down on entertainment spending in the face of the credit crunch.

And what better way to spend your time than with a romantic home-cooked meal, a nice bottle of wine, and those French lace knickers that drive him wild? Hmm? Yeah, thought so.

So, feel free to tighten your belt – just make sure it’s your suspender belt.

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