PLASTIC CUPS OF WINE

The Bannatyne verdict: ‘No one has placed an order, which proves to me that it doesn’t work as a selling item because people don’t want to buy wine in plastic glasses like that with a seal on top. It’s as simple as that, so for that reason I’m out.’

ENTREPRENEUR – JAMES NASH

The pitch – Mr Nash may have aimed too high, asking for £250,000 for 25 per cent of his cup-a-wine company, but Bannatyne was particularly scathing, repeatedly demanding order numbers. When Mr Nash said he had a ‘ l etter of intent’ for three million units, the Scot asked to see it and declared it was nothing of t he sort. Even when the entrepreneur revealed he had shifted 20,000 units in an evening at a Rod Stewart concert at Hampden , the penny did not drop. what happened next – Marks & Spencer decided people did want to buy wine in just such a form. It rolled out the product at all of i ts stores. Within a couple of years Mr Nash had sold almost a mill i on units in the UK alone, had secured a patent and had developed and exported machinery to manufacture the product in Australia and South Africa. Mr Nash, pictured with wife Leslie, above, said: ‘The most insulting comment came from Duncan Bannatyne who said I j ust wanted the money to have a good time.’