Magic invention is top of Dragon’s Den hitlist
Midland couple are biggest winners on BBC business show
AMIDLAND couple’s business has been named the top brand to come out of TV’s Dragon’s Den by experts ranking the most high-profile e-commerce investments from the BBC show.
Laura and Neil Westwood, from Worcester, are behind the worldfamous Magic Whiteboard.
Marketing platform experts Affise compiled a list of the six most lucrative companies to come out of the Den over 16 series since it started in 2005.
Magic Whiteboard was one of the early pitches in 2006.
But Affise said it was “the top ever brand to come out of the Den” as it “instantly grabbed the attention of the Dragons with its fool-proof simplicity”.
The idea consisted of a whiteboard sheet that could be stuck to any surface, avoiding the need to nail one into the wall.
Although Peter Jones was not convinced, the husband and wife team secured a £100,000 investment with Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden.
“The product is now sold worldwide in Ryman stores – proving Peter Jones wrong once and for all,” added the Affise expert.
“The couple, who have two daughters, gave the Dragons 40 per cent of their business in return for the investment.
They went on to boost their sales from £45,000 to £1.2 million a year by 2014, later buying back their shares from Meaden and Paphitis, giving the investors an £800,000 return on their £100,000 investment.
Sam O’Brien, Chief Marketing Officer at Affise, said: “It is no surprise that Dragons Den continues to have young entrepreneurs flocking through its doors, despite the notoriously intimidating questions that seem to follow each pitch.
“It is a truth commonly acknowledged that some investments have been far more successful than others, with huge brands on the shelves of many shops that initially started out in the Den. On the other hand, there are also many successful businesses that were turned down by the Dragons, that have gone on to be more triumphant than Meaden or Paphitis could ever have imagined. A TV promotion is always helpful for people building brands, which is why television shows such as Dragons Den continue to be so important.”