Manchester womenswear brand Murci grows from side hustle to £10m success

Murci turned over £10m in the last year as the Manchester womenswear label expanded to around 35 staff, moved into a new head office and opened a US route through a California distribution centre. The business began in 2021 with Olivia Prince selling clothes online from her grandmother’s house in Manchester while she worked part-time as a receptionist and packed orders after work.

Prince later rebranded the operation as Murci and built it around in-house designed womenswear, bold prints and accessible price points. That choice gave the company a sharper identity in a crowded market where trend-led labels can blur together fast, and it helped Murci move beyond the low-barrier resale model that often limits scale.

The turning point came when Millie Court wore a Murci two-piece on Love Island in 2021. Murci sold a few hundred of the item after the television appearance, and Prince spent the next day handwriting labels and sending orders, a reminder that viral exposure still needs a functioning fulfilment operation behind it.

Murci Limited was incorporated on 25 August 2021 and is active in Manchester, with Companies House listing its registered office at Unit 4 Varley Business Centre, James Street, Manchester, England, M40 8EL, and its business activity as retail sale of clothing in specialised stores. The company’s website now describes Murci as a fast-growing UK womenswear brand and a female-led team of designers, creatives and marketers.

The growth has been enough to put Murci among the UK’s fastest-rising names in retail. The Times placed it among the country’s top 20 fastest-growing companies, with growth of 140% and turnover of £9.3m in the period before it passed the £10m mark. Murci’s site still carries a dedicated Love Island collection, showing how the early TV break has been folded into a broader sales strategy rather than treated as a one-off spike.

Prince, who is from Conwy and studied in Manchester, has also used her profile to push a practical message to young people in North Wales: the route from side hustle to scale runs through product, staffing and distribution, not just visibility.