Mums sink their teeth into bib market

Amy Livingstone, a business development manager at Hotel du Vin, and Scottish Enterprise tourism innovation manager Julie Wilson came up with the idea for the “Neckerchew” while they were both on maternity leave.

Wilson said: “When Amy and I met friends with their babies, we all seemed to spend half our time picking up and re-sanitising dropped teethers.

“It was the simplicity in  our initial idea that was so appealing – why not create  a teething product that is  attached to the baby?”

Livingstone and Wilson set up their own company, Cheeky Chompers, in May to develop the idea and will launch the product at The Baby Show at London’s Excel exhibition centre.

The firm will initially sell the product via its own website but aims to sign up retailers at a trade show in March.

Livingstone added: “It has taken a lot of hard work and late nights to get to this stage, but we are thrilled to be launching Neckerchew and I cannot wait to see where Cheeky Chompers will take us in the coming months.”

The product is being manufactured in Glasgow by cloth nappy maker Tots Bots.

Wilson said: “We were convinced we wanted to make them in Scotland and we’re really pleased with Tots Bots.”

Livingstone and Wilson each contributed £10,000 to get the firm off the ground, with Business Gateway awarding a £9,000 grant.