THE woman who masterminded last year’s launch of the Duke of Westminster’s £1bn Liverpool One shopping development is now hoping to help rival retail centres in the region fight back.

Former Liverpool One chief executive Joanne Jennings left her job at the Duke’s Grosvenor company late last year, and has now set up her own consultancy practice offering marketing advice to regeneration schemes around England’s north-west region.

Asked whether she would be selling her services to those towns and shopping centres in the region that had lost trade to Liverpool One, Ms Jennings said: “I will have to look at those opportunities, but it depends on who I’m hired by. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t work for them.”

Ms Jennings was recruited to the top job at Liverpool One in April, 2007, and oversaw the launch marketing campaign for Grosvenor throughout 2008. She left the company in December of last year.

Since it first opened its doors for business last May, Liverpool One has been judged a big success, attracting millions of shoppers back to the city.

However, Liverpool One’s success has been achieved at the expense of other towns and shopping centres in the region, where footfall has fallen away in the last 12 months.

The former Liverpool One boss has now set up her own regeneration scheme marketing consultancy, called Insight, which operates from premises at Il Palazzo, in Liverpool city centre, and another office in her home town of Belfast.

As well as marketing, Ms Jennings, who previously worked as a consultant with business advisory firm Deloitte, will also offer training and business planning services.