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Apprentice winner hires Mere Mortals

A former winner of The Apprentice is about to launch a fashion and lifestyle website, with the help of a North East digital media and film company.

Michelle Dewberry, the 2006 winner of the BBC programme, is working alongside Newcastle-based Mere Mortals to launch her website chiconomise.com, after famously leaving her role with Sir Alan Sugar to start her own business.

Aimed at professional, fashion-conscious women, the website covers a range of areas, from discount offers and fashion and beauty advice, to dining, travel and going out.

Ms Dewberry, who already has a team of three working on Chiconomise, said: “I came up with the concept in January this year where it started life as a newsletter. The response was phenomenal and we’ve already got 20,000 subscribers.

“It can be so complicated finding all these fashion brand discounts scattered around the internet. We’ve brought them all together, while making it simple and fun.

“We’ve already been highlighted as ‘one to watch’ in the Independent’s Online Fashion 100 and we’ve only been on the scene since the beginning of the year.”

Mere Mortals, which worked on the film Slumdog Millionaire, was recommended to Ms Dewberry in late March this year.

Kathryn Taylor, Mere Mortals director, said: “It usually takes an average of three to four months to create a website, so only having eight weeks from start to finish was a real challenge.

“We wanted to be able to give Michelle a finished website in time for the launch date, but without losing out on quality. Thankfully Michelle and her team were able to tell us exactly what they wanted making the process much smoother.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .