Corsets feature large in the history of North Oxfordshire, but now a lingerie company is making a success of offering less constricting underwear. Bob and Jane Fleming have spent most of their working lives making bras, and following the demise of Banbury's underwear industry decided to set up their own company, Royce Lingerie.

With the fashion for under-wired push-ups flooding the high streets, they have found a niche market among women who need something more comfortable, but still ‘sexy and fashionable’, according to Mr Fleming, 58.

As a former production director of the historic Spencer of Banbury, he was part of a management buyout in the 1980s, while his wife was a bra designer.

Spencer, founded in 1930 at the height of the Depression, made back supports for the NHS, converted to parachute-making during the Second World War, then — as corsets went out of fashion — turned to bras.

It later became a Remploy factory, employing disabled people, but was unable to compete with cheaper manufacturers in the Far East, and closed in the early 1990s to make way for a retirement homes complex.

Having worked in the industry for so long, they decided the only way to compete was to offer something different.

Mrs Fleming's design for a wire-free nursing bra for the National Childbirth Trust, which promotes breastfeeding, had proved an instant success.

“We decided to specialise in niche products, providing solutions for maternity and nursing bras,” he said.

“We thought this was a good niche area. We got involved with John Lewis, and realised that the type of bras we were supplying were also suitable for people with mastectomies after breast cancer surgery. Then we designed a sports bra with large cups.

“We boast that we have a bra for every stage of a woman's life — teenage trainer bras, sports, maternity, breastfeeding and so on. If you are a big girl and want to do sport, it's difficult to find a supportive bra.”

Removing the wire from a bra may seem easy, but producing a wire-free bra for women who are not wafer-thin is a bit of an engineering challenge.

Mr Fleming said: “The wire does a lot of work. With a wire, it is easy to produce something fashionable and skimpy. If you haven't got a wire, you have to design it more carefully, otherwise it can look frumpy. Without wire, you need a wider underband and wings, and the support needs to go to the straps.

“The trick is to make it light and sexy. Traditionally, they tend to look frumpy, and it's a design challenge to still make a bra look sexy and fashionable.

“Comfort and fit is our big thing, as well as fashion.”

Having learnt from the demise of Spencer Silhouette, they outsource manufacture to China and Thailand, where it is cheaper.

“When we first started, we had a small manufacturing plant in Banbury to produce top-up sizes when we didn't have any in stock. But as we grew, we moved to source everything overseas.

“We do everything here apart from the stitching. We source the material and take care of every detail.”

Turnover has grown from £100,000 in the first year to a “multi-million pound figure” today, despite a hiccup during the recession last year.

“In late 2008, orders just stopped coming in. It was a nightmare and we lost a few staff. Then in April last year, everyone realised the world hadn't come to an end and we had a record-breaking month. It was a tough year, but we've started to climb back up.”

As he says, there will always be a need for nursing bras.

“It's not a discretionary purchase. And if you go horse-riding and you're uncomfortable, you need something different.”

And Royce Lingerie is now pushing into export markets in the US, Australia and the Middle East. It makes bras for Mothercare, John Lewis and House of Fraser, as well as supplying about 500 independent stores.

New software from IT company Acutec gives trade customers their own log-in, allowing them to place orders and check stock levels 24 hours a day.

Steve Best of Acutec said: “The fact the company is enhancing its international sales as well as achieving success in the UK is a testament to the forward-thinking attitude of the directors and staff.”

Mr Fleming has no plans to bow out for another few years, and is pleased to be working for himself: “If you love what you're doing, it's easy to carry on.”