First of all, my apologies for the lateness and brevity of this week’s update – It’s due to a combination of being really busy with the Christmas sales, a dose of Man-flu, and taking the night off to go to a Madness gig. Normal service will be resumed next week..

Thankfully, the dragons ensured that there wasn’t much to write home about anyway, with only the 1 investment this week, a real no-brainer, with James and Duncan investing £75,000 each in return for an initial 36% stake in Chocbox, an electrical connector housing box. The company was already selling in excess of 1,000,000 a year for a GP of £300,000 stablised for the last three years.

The entrepreneur made it clear from the start that he was not after the dragon’s money, but rather their expertise in selling to retail and exporting to take an already successful business to the next level. He even went as far as to offer them a “money-back guarantee” that he would buy their shares back whenever they want for at least the price they paid. Not surprisingly, Duncan and James bit his hand off – Even if they do bu**er all for him, they should still see a very healthy ROI.

As much as that was an easy investment, it was clear that the other pitches were without a doubt ones best avoided, such as Jewellery for single people, magnetic light bulbs (good idea… few teething problems, but silly valuation), secret code clothing range, a high-tech hand dryer (did they watch the Syed from The Apprentice follow-up program?), a stripey ice-cream machine, a portable swimming pool alarm, an elasticated pregnancy support belt and breathable saddle pads for horses.

This is how it’s affected the Investment League table, with just one episode to go…

1. Theo Paphitis: 5 investments, £447,500
2. James Caan: 5 investments, £335,000
3. Peter Jones: 4 investments, £300,000
4. Deborah Meaden: 5 investments, £232,500
5. Duncan Bannatyne: 3 investments, £175,000

New dragon James Caan rises up to second place, leapfrogging Peter Jones. I don’t think Theo will be caught in the final episode, and whilst Duncan Bannatyne is closing in on Deborah Meaden, he may have left it too late to avoid the wooden spoon this series.

It’s interesting to see that next week’s episode will also feature a brief “what happened next” from some of this series’ investments – A great idea while the pitches are still fresh in your mind.

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