February 21, 2007 – 10:17 pm
Roger Hind entered the Dragons Den tonight and I bet he didn’t expect to start a fight.
He was selling his product, the rotamate, a washing line that protects your clothes from the rain, and the birds! Roger was asking for £85,000 for a 15% share in his business. Richard Farleigh declared at an early stage that he would be prepared to offer half the money for about 15% of the business, but when Deborah Meaden offered half the money for 20% of the business Richard changed his mind and decided to ask for the same.
The other Dragons were enraged, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitas even went as far as to advise Roger not to take the deal.
But Roger was desperate for the cash, and the expertise, so he accepted the offer on the table and ended up giving away 40% of his company for £85,000.
February 21, 2007 – 10:09 pm
Denise Hutton entered the Dragons Den tonight along with 4 children from her theatre school, who proceeded to perform the school jingle.
Denise currently owns 4 Razzamataz theatre schools and has franchised out 6 other branches. Denise was asking the Dragons for £50,000 in exchange for 25% of her business.
The Dragons were impressed by Denise’s pitch but were unsure of what she needed the £50,000 for. She first claimed she could use it to lend to potential franchisees, then changed her mind and said she could use it for marketing.
This seemed to scare off Deborah Meaden, Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones, and Richard Farleigh jumped ship because he thought that Razzamataz faced too big a competitor in Stagecoach.
However Duncan Bannantyne waited until the last final moment to reveal that he had in fact invested in Stagecoach and had sold his investment on for quite a large profit. He shockingly failed to haggle with Denise and offered her the full £50,000 for 25% of the business.
Duncan closed the show by saying:
“How could I haggle? It’ll be a fantastic little business”.
February 7, 2007 – 10:12 pm
Igloo. A refrigerated delivery service who asked for £160,000 in return for 8% of their company.
Anthony Coates-Smith & Alistair Turner chances looked slim at first as Peter Jones accused them of having frozen brains for valuing their company at £2 million. however it became apparent that the mens proposal could be a profitable one as a bidding war ensued amongst the Dragons.
Duncan Bannatyne made the first offer of £80,000 for 20%, swiftly matched by Richard Farleigh, who brought the equity down to 15%.
Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis tried to undercut them with a bid for 12.5%, followed by Peter Jones, who had clearly warmed to the business.
He offered all the money for 30%, but in the end it was Richard who clinched the deal by suggesting that he and Duncan offered half each for a total of 22.5%.
After a quick chat at the back of the den, Anthony and Alistair chose to go with Richard and Duncan’s offer and secured the £160,000 they needed to expand their business to two further UK locations.
