Julia Minchin, Founder of Hippychick: Businesses can only develop if you value your team

Tuesday, 05 March 2019

Hippychick was founded in 1999 on a lightbulb moment by new parent, Julia Minchin. While looking for products to buy when her son Tom was a baby, Julia was astonished by the lack of genuinely useful products on the high street. This prompted her to develop the Hipseat –an ergonomic baby carrier designed to carry a baby comfortably and naturally while simultaneously supporting the back.   

The business portfolio has since developed and grown, based on lightbulb moments from other parents.  This is very much Hippychick’s ethos, welcoming, supporting and mentoring like-minded new parents who have identified a gap in the parenting market with baby products that align with Hippychick’s brand values –innovation, quality and functionality.  

Since Hippychick’s origins, Julia has successfully combined the art of building her family as well as Hippychick.  The company is now achieving sales of over £3 million and employing 15 members of staff. Alongside Hippychick own-brand lines, the company also distributes several other brands with around 1300 SKUS, many of which are exclusive to Hippychick in the UK.  

Julia’s Top Tips

• PR can really help to belie the size of your business. At Hippychick, even when we were a seedling business, we have always punched above our weight in media term always being ambitious and thinking big.  
• Look after your staff. Businesses can only develop if you value your team and let them grow - and that’s a principle I’ve always applied at Hippychick.