Chillipeeps taking the baby gadget market by storm

HER products have been described as “genius” and have been exported to 13 countries, so for Yorkshire inventor and entrepreneur Claire Mitchell, her goal now is to continue growing her unique brand.

Mrs Mitchell is the founder of Chillipeeps, which develops teats to attach to a carton of formula or bottle, meaning mums and dads don’t need to lug sterilised baby bottles around with them all of the time.

The North Yorkshire business was created almost six years ago when Mrs Mitchell was on a long drive with her then 10-week-old daughter, Mimi, and didn’t have a clean bottle to hand to feed her.

Once she decided to create her idea, Mrs Mitchell took advice, got it patented and then looked for a company to help her look for a prototype.

“Once I had done this, it helped me visualise an actual product. It took four years but in 2011 the product went to market,” the entrepreneur said.

The product immediately proved a success, with 250 distributors coming forward to find out more about the teat.

Chillipeeps is now sold in a number of retailers including Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco and Mama and Papas. Mrs Mitchell exports her products to various countries including Luxembourg, Norway, China, Indonesia, Japan and Poland.

Since September, Chillipeeps has been sold in 13 countries including the UK and Mrs Mitchell, from Ripon, has launched three products – the teat, pre-steralised teat and spout.

“The business is now growing nationally and internationally,” Claire said.
 
“It is steady and moving in the right direction and people are now getting to know about us.

“Mum’s love it and have described it as genius.

“It solves a common problem many people experience when out and about with young hungry babies and no clean sterilised bottle to use, by allowing a teat or spout to be attached directly to a carton to feed your baby and many mineral water bottles to enable you to rehydrate your baby.”

The teats are manufactured in Lincolnshire.

The entrepreneur has had to overcome breast feeding regulations and prejudice against bottle feeding babies and toddlers. However, Mrs Mitchell said she promotes breast feeding, this is simply an alternative.