I read an interesting article this morning about a small Australia lingerie company, aussiebum who is riding high on the mistakes of lingerie giant, Bonds who recently revealed financial troubles and a planned move away from Australia.

So great has the backlash been with factory workers losing jobs and the revelations of the CEO and Executive’s massive pay bonuses (170% increase) that Australians are shunning the once Australian icon and buying merchanise from aussieBum, “Australian made by choice”.

That’s their new marketing campaign and it appears to be working with a 40% increase in sales.

There are quite a few interesting points to note about this story. The first – our absolute disgust at seeing CEO’s making any sort of money during these times, especially when they are laying off employees at the bottom end of the pay scale.

Secondly, it’s great to see a company posting increases in sales during such hard financial times. Even though consumers are being more mindful of spending money, they are prepared to invest in companies doing the right thing by it’s workforce and by the country.

We can only hope that aussiebum can take the proud mantle Bonds once had and be an Australian icon in years to come.

Small businesses should take notice of this story, opportunities exist for savvy operators like Sean Ashby, founder of aussiebum. You need to make yourself aware of what your competitors are doing and take immediate action to capitalize on their mistakes. In this particular case, Bonds made a massive error in judgement and I’m sure the people at the top are sitting quite uncomfortably – in their Bonds undies ;)