A BUSINESSWOMAN has been recognised for the excellence of her bra shops ahead of the Queen’s own fitter.

But Sadie Ayton, best known as Sadie the Bra Lady, has admired June Kenton for years and said winning the national lingerie industry award only put them on a par.

Mrs Ayton won the Underlines Shop Award, which Mrs Kenton of Rigby and Peller, which holds the Royal Warrant as corsetier to the Queen, was awarded last year.

Mrs Ayton, who started her first shop in Consett, County Durham, in 1970, said she did not feel winning the award made her better than Ms Kenton.

She said: “I feel more on a level. I have known about June Kenton for years, I have admired her and have read all the articles she has done.

“I have never met her before, but she was on the next table to me at the awards.

“I went over, tapped her on the shoulder and said I am Sadie. She grabbed me and gave me the biggest hug, as if I was family and then we talked for ages. I think we hit it off because we are on the same wavelength. That was before the actual awards and she presented me with the award.”

At the ceremony, at London’s Copthorne Tara Hotel, Mrs Ayton received the award in the best shop category for “excellence and personal achievement”.

As well as her original Consett shop Mrs Ayton now has outlets at Darlington, Sunderland, Ashington, Scarborough and Thirsk.

She partly put her success down to the service she provides to customers, with a visitors’ book kept in every store.

Mrs Ayton said: “We have a visitors’ book in every shop for people who want to make comments. We have thousands of testimonials.”

Her 62,995 registered customers are able to access their details on a web database and reorder a bra, although if they want a different one they have to come in for a fitting.

Mrs Ayton insists on personal fittings because she believes up to 80 per cent of women might be wearing the wrong-sized bra.

She puts this down to the measurement guide most people use being based on a 1907 scale when bras were more rigid.

She said this guide allowed for an extra four inches in bras so that the wearer could breathe.

The national award scheme was launched in the UK last year when Mrs Ayton finished in the top five.

They are hosted by the lingerie and swimwear publication Underlines and designed to acknowledge the importance of independent retailers.

Retailers could not apply to the awards, but instead had to be nominated by their suppliers.