Baby care brand Cheeky Chompers has launched its first crowdfunding campaign this week on equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.
The Edinburgh-headquartered company, who last year won a Queen’s Award for enterprise for international trade, plans to raise £400,000 and use the investment to further scale the business through new product development, direct sales growth and increased brand awareness in key markets.
Founders Julie Wilson and Amy Livingstone met when they were both on maternity leave with their first children. They launched Cheeky Chompers in 2013 with the Neckerchew, the world’s first chewable dribble bib with attached teether and now have 9 multi-use baby products alongside a range of products for children and adults with oral sensory issues.
Cheeky Chompers products are now sold by over 1500 retailers in 49 countries, with the US, China and the UK representing the company’s largest markets. The overall global market for baby soothers and teethers forecast to reach nearly $8 billion by 2020. With over 31 distributors globally, exports by Cheeky Chompers account for approximately 65 per cent of total sales.
Founding director Julie Wilson said: “Our vision is to be one of the go-to brands worldwide for baby products and gifts and we’re excited to be sharing our vision and future successes with our loyal customers, supporters and the crowdfunding community. Innovation remains at our core, delivered with intuition, quality and style. We have a strong base from which to scale the business with an extensive international distribution network already in place. We are really excited about the next phase of growth.”
In February, Cheeky Chompers revealed it was experiencing a soar in sales in China via the company’s flagship online store on the Tmall.com platform, the world’s largest online e-commerce site; in addition to building a strong presence across China’s other leading retailers with over 250 stores stocking Cheeky Chompers products. Cheeky Chompers sells in major retailers including John Lewis, JoJo Mama Bebe, Tesco, Boots and Nordstrom. The brand has developed collaborative products with select retailers including Joules and The White Company and has a number of new national retailer wins in the pipeline.
Founding director Amy Livingstone said: “We have exciting new products in progress to expand our product range. This will feed our strong distribution channels. In addition, we will significantly drive digital growth and create even closer connections with our individual customers in order to grow the higher margin direct to consumer channel.”
Corporate finance boutique Quest Corporate and corporate advisory firm Full Circle Partners are both supporting Cheeky Chompers around the crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube.
