Maternity leave
leads to
Amy Livingstone and Julie Wilson started award
winning nursery brand Cheeky Chompers
when they were on maternity leave with their
first children.
Amy and I were lucky to meet through having
children however we never imagined we’d set
up business together soon after! The business
came out of our experiences when our babies
were teething and we were constantly picking up
and sterilising dropped teethers – ‘Why doesn’t
someone invent a teether that stays attached to
the baby’ we thought…
We founded the business with our own funds and
support from friends and family and continued
to fund our growth from company profits, with
no external investment. We have enjoyed rapid
growth and are delighted to have sold more
than one million Cheeky Chompers products
around the world. We are the baby gift of choice
in many high street stores such as John Lewis,
JoJo Maman Bebe, Boots and overseas export
accounts for over 70% of our turnover as we
export to 36 countries with the USA, China, Taiwan
and Australia being our largest. In 2017 we were
delighted to be the only Scottish winners of the
prestigious Natwest Everywoman Award and our
products continue to win awards across the world!
We launched the world’s first chewy dribble bib
the Neckerchew in 2013 and haven’t looked back!
We make all our fabric products in the UK and
have designed a range of stylish and innovative
everyday parenting essentials to make parents’
lives that little bit easier. All our products are
practical, attachable, machine washable and
stringently tested to worldwide standards.
Our award winning Cheeky Chompers range
is now nine products strong, offering the
Neckerchew, Comfortchew, Neckerbib, Chewy
the teething hippo, the Cheeky Blanket and an
adaptation of our Neckerchew for older children
and adults with oral sensory stimulation needs.
In 2017 we launched the Muslin Collection
comprising four innovative products made from
100% super soft organic muslin: Neckerchew,
Neckerbib, Comforter and our latest innovation
the MultiMuslin, one beautiful teething muslin with
six clever uses. We launch stylish new designs
every Spring and Autumn and our latest product
will launch in May!
Do something you’re
passionate about and
excites you- this motivates
you at work and home!
However, it hasn’t been all plain sailing. Neither
of us had backgrounds in retail and it has been
a steep learning curve understanding barcodes,
pallets, MOQ’s and the export documentation!
We invested heavily in IP and then successfully
gained first to market positioning in key markets,
but have had many battles enforcing our IP. We
have fought hard to manufacture our products
here in the UK and maintaining a competitive
price is a constant consideration. We work hard
to constantly innovate, refresh and stay one
step ahead which means you can never get to
the end of the to do list! All that couples with a
growing team, two on maternity leave and our
young children and families it’s all about effective
juggling. Running your own business is certainly
not the easy option- but definitely very rewarding!
We appeared on Dragons’ Den eleven weeks in
to business with the Neckerchew and whilst the
Dragons loved the product they did not believe
our projections. When it aired a year later we
benefited from a fantastic PR boost and traffic to
our website had an astonishing uplift during and
after the broadcast. It’s amazing the recognition
that early appearance has brought us. We’re
pleased to say that we smashed all the figures the
Dragons’ dismissed within a year of business so
we’re one of the ones that got away!
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