One of the benefits of Sky-plussing Dragons Den is that you get a few minutes of Nigella Lawson recorded at the beginning of each episode. Now whilst I’d never sit through a whole hour of her, a few minutes each week seems to be the perfect amount, and try as I might, I can’t seem to fast forward through her…

What’s got 6 legs, a confident pitch, and £100,000 of the Dragons money? Sammy French and her Golden Lab “Daffy” – that’s what. Sammy did the pitch whilst Daffy demonstrated the product – A treadmill for dogs.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking, and so was I.. as were the dragons… But this isn’t just a way of exercising your dog without leaving the house – It’s designed to be used by Vets, Kennels, etc as a rehab tool for dogs with injuries that need specific controlled excercise.

Sammy announced that her company “Fit-Fur-Life” had sold 147 treadmills, which didn’t sound a lot until you realise that the company makes £1,300 profit per unit. The dragons felt that she didn’t need their investment given this, but she explained that the bank had with-held a loan she was relying on to buy the stock to fulfill orders, and so had hit cashflow problems.

Peter and Deborah weren’t happy with this (Deborah in particular thought she was being mis-led), and declared themselves out. James probed a little further into her projections, and seemed happy with her estimate level of selling 300 units a year (which equates to a Gross Profit of c390, 000 p.a.). There’s no doubt she’s got her feet on the ground – No wild valuations or stupid projections, and clearly a potentially good investment.

Not suprisingly then, James offered her the full £100,000, but for 50% of the business. Duncan and Theo were still in, but only for a few seconds, as they both advised Sammy to bite James arm off – Thankfully they didn’t tell Daffy to do the same! Sammy accepted the offer, and a good deal was done for both parties I think.

Quickies this week included an Ethical Chocolate and coffee company, a portable boat, a portable soft toy stuffing machine (WTF???), a corporate racing day company (Who have to be given credit for getting an Aston Martin GT up the stairs somehow!), and the return of Roark McMaster (He of the Cucumber-condom fame from last year) with a portable (buzz word of the week!) solar charging device. all rubbish businesses, quickly dispatched.

Inventor Andrew Sneath was next up to face the dragons looking for a massive £300,000 investment for a 20% share in his underwater inventions company Hydrodome. He seemed to think there was a market for setting up an underwater theme park in the UK where people would pay £45 to be chased around a big swimming pool by some robotic sharks.

The dragons weren’t remotely interested in the sharks or other creatures, but James Caan was interested in the actual device for taking people underwater and allowing them to breathe normally whilst observing all around them, called BOB (Breathing Observation Bubble) could have been taken to the coasts of Spain, Tenerife etc for tourists to explore the coastlines.

I’m sure I heard Andrew state that he made approx £4,000 profit per “BOB” sold, and that he had sold 200 of them, but no-one asked the question where his £800,000 profit had gone? He stated a target of selling 50 “BOB’s” per year which would give a profit of £200,000 p.a. Which really put paid to any chance of an investment when he valued the company at £1.5m. James was fairly interested, but clearly not at that price, so declared himself out.

Hafida Sarachi thought she had a brilliant idea for a business – A “women-only” odd-job business called Handygirl, and wanted the dragons to invest £84,000 for a 15% stake. Unfortunately, she failed to heed the warnings of previous “women-only” businesses to have pitched in the den – Sex discrimination works both ways!

She was looking to expand via the franchise route, and when it was established that she felt “most” male odd-job men did a bad job, yet she had no professional qualifications whatsoever, and wasn’t expecting her franchisees to have either, it was clear that she had not thought things through. Hiring unqualified people to do building repair work is only leading to one outcome – and that’s a string of unhappy customers and potential lawsuits.

It appeared to me that she had no bsuiness acumen whatsoever – I think she had the idea, printed the T-shirt and applied for the den all in the same day. Needless to say, none of the dragons were interested in this “business” and all passed the “opportunity”.

The final couple this week (and therefore a foregone conclusion that they would win the Investment) were Jerry Mantalvanos and Paul Merker from JPM Eco Logistics, who wanted £100,000 for a 20% share in their Eco-friendly haulage company.

Despite the fact that they only have 1 contract, and the idea (trucks that are 98% recyclable and using bio-diesel) is incredibly easily copied, four of the dragons were interested, Peter Jones keeping his sensible head on and declaring himself out.

Jerry and Paul were projecting first year turnover of £400,000, leading to a GP of £106,000, which might lead to the conclusion that the business might be profitable even without the “green” angle. The first offer came from James Caan who offered to put up £50,000 (half the amount they were looking for), but for a 22.5% share in the company. Duncan Bannatyne offered to match the offer, before Theo offered to undercut the pair by only demanding a 20% stake. Deborah matched the offer (as always.. why don’t they just get a room? eeeurgh.. that’s a nasty thought) and Jery and Paul accepted their offer of £100,000 for a 40% stake.

Of the two offers, it clearly made sense for them to accept Theo and Deborahs as Theo already has a fleet of vehicles going up and down the country. A better option might have been for them to try and partner up Duncan and Theo as they would seem to be the perfect match with Duncan’s logistics company Igloo.

Let’s have a look at the updated Investment League Table for Week 7:

1. Theo Paphitis: 5 investments, £447,500
2. Peter Jones: 4 investments, £300,000
3. James Caan: 4 investments, £260,000
4. Deborah Meaden: 5 investments, £232,500
5. Duncan Bannatyne: 2 investments, £100,000

So with just 2 episodes to go, Theo has established a huge lead at the top, and Duncan remains rooted to the bottom (which is hopefully the relegation zone). James has leapfrogged Deborah (eeurg… another nasty thought) to go into third place. Of course, everything can change in the next 2 weeks, as you just know the BIG investments will be saved until the last episodes (especially the final pitch of the final episode).

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