People still call me a Corrie star but it's my business that's been my big success

Arianna Ajtar started her own fashion label with £3k savings - now it's a huge success, reports Dianne Bourne

- Dianne Bourne

SHE may be recognisable to millions for her past role on Coronation Street - but Arianna Ajtar says it is her business success that deserves to grab the headlines now.

Arianna had a dramatic role in the ITV soap as model Olivia Radfield in 2018 and 2019.

But away from the soap, Arianna was already busy forging her fashion success story. She launched Mars the Label in 2015, with just £3,000 savings and using her dad's living room as the base for the business in Bolton.

Now, after negotiating highs and lows of the business world, she has steered the company to become a multi-million pound success story. And customers from across the globe now wear her designs. Incredibly, she is entirely selftaught - starting by simply creating designs for clothes she wanted to wear on a 'kids doodle app' online. She now has a team of 25 staff that work alongside her at Mars the Label's office headquarters in Bolton.

Arianna, 27, says of her success: "We are now an eight-figure annual turnover brand, which is honestly wild when you bring it all the way back to starting with less than £3,000 in my dad's living room. We've come such a long way, and I've learnt so many lessons.

"I can't even believe it myself to be honest. Sometimes I sit there and look at the sales on the website and can't believe that genuinely it's mine."

When she first started her business dream, she was 19 and studying for a degree in acting at Liverpool University. She was also holding down two jobs at The Perfume Shop in the Trafford Centre and a jewellery shop in Bury to scrimp enough money to invest in the business. But she soon realised something would have to give to fulfil the potential of her fashion dream.