My grandmother inspired £150m beauty brand

SHANGHAI-born entrepreneur Susie Ma says her clean-living chemist grandmother Jing Chun, 93, (pictured) inspired her beauty business, Tropic Skincare.

Susie was 13 when she moved to London from Australia and, aged 15, she borrowed £100 from her mother to start selling jam jars of homemade body scrubs at Greenwich Market. She made £980 on her first day.

Soon Susie had made enough money to put a deposit down on a two-bedroom house and pay her tuition fees for her economics and philosophy degree at University College London. She also quit her job as an investment banker at Citibank for a shot on the show in 2011.

Although she missed out to inventor Tom Pellereau, Lord Sugar approached her at the show after-party and asked for a fresh business plan. And he was soon in touch to say his wife loved the products and he wanted to invest.

Tropic Skincare is now one of the fastest growing companies in the UK, employing 160 staff.

Now 31, Susie says: ‘We have had to work very, very hard to get where we are. The Apprentice gave us a platform to launch, but from then on it has been a lot of hard graft.’ And she says her grandmother, who still lives in Shanghai, was delighted to see the business thrive, adding: ‘She taught me from a very early age to live clean. She is especially proud that what she believes in has had so much reach.’

Speaking about Susie’s success, Lord Sugar says: ‘It’s incredible for her; incredible for me. It’s been incredible for the BBC.’