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Craft Gin Club has been named one the most successful businesses to appear on Dragons' Den!
Apr 29, 2021
Craft Gin Club has been named one of the five most successful businesses to have appeared on the BBC television show Dragons’ Den by Hello!, and we couldn’t be happier about it!
They have put us in the top five along with Reggae Reggae Sauce, Magic Whiteboard, Wonderbly and Skinnny Tan - how exciting!
Jon and John with Dragon Sarah Willingham
It has certainly been a wild ride since our gin-credible co-founders Jon Hulme and John Burke pitched the club on Dragons’ Den way back in 2016.
On that fateful day, Jon and John managed to impress all of the Dragons, winning offers from all four of them. It was Sarah Willingham, co-founder of London Cocktail Club, who won out in the end though - she was already a member, after all.
Jon and John accepted an investment of £75,000 from Sarah for a 12.5% share in the business and since then the club has gone from strength to strength, developing into the amazing community of over 130,000 gin fans it is now.
You can read all about Jon and John’s winning pitch and how they felt about being on the show by clicking this link!
Who are the other four most successful businesses to appear on Dragons’ Den? Let’s find out!
Skinny Tan
Image: Skinny Tan
Pitched on Dragons’ Den by founders Kate Cotton and Louise Ferguson, who have since sold the company to InnovaDerma, Skinny Tan is a range of self-tanners that had already made more than £600,000 in just one year before it appeared on the show. Needless to say, the Dragons were impressed!
Louise and Kate won investments from both interior designer, Kelly Hoppen, and successful entrepreneur, Piers Linney, totalling £600,000 for 10% of the business.
Self-tan and gin night, anyone?
Reggae Reggae Sauce
Image: Levi Roots
Levi Roots’ iconic appearance on Dragons’ Den in 2007 will not soon be forgotten. Opening with a reggae song played on his guitar, Levi introduced his lip-smacking Reggae Reggae Sauce with style. He managed to charm both entrepreneur, Peter Jones, and Australian private investor, Richard Farleigh, into making an investment of £50,000 for 10% of Levi’s business.
You can now find Reggae Reggae Sauce in supermarkets up and down the country and Levi’s cookbooks on bookshop shelves too. What’s more, Levi even has his own show on BBC Radio 2 - what a success story!
Now we just need to find a way to mix Reggae Reggae Sauce with gin!
Wonderbly
Image: Wonderbly
Now, this could possibly be the cutest business to come across the Dragons’ desk. Started by dads, Pedro Serapicos, David Cadji-Newby, Tal Oron and Asi Sharabi, Wonderbly creates personalised storybooks for children.
Dragon Piers Linney was enamoured with the idea and offered the group of super-dads £100,000 for 4% of their company.
We wonder if anyone will write a story about Craft Gin Club one day.
Magic Whiteboard
Image: Magic Whiteboard
Peter Jones scoffed when Neil and Laura Westwood presented their idea for a portable, roll-up-able whiteboard. Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis, however, saw the potential in Neil and Laura’s idea. They invested a sum of £100,000, giving Neil and Laura the last laugh.
Magic Whiteboards are now available in Ryman and are used widely across classrooms and offices - never to draw rude things after a G&T or two, of course!
As is this wasn’t enough excitement, we also won the People’s Choice Award at this year’s Food & Drink Heroes awards, click on this link to find out more!
Craft Gin Club’s co-founders John and Jon, with our Director of Marketing Alex, Director of Content & Community Katy
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