Bacup entrepreneur fails to scoop Dragons' Den investment (From Chorley Citizen)
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Bacup entrepreneur fails to scoop Dragons' Den investment
10:00am Wednesday 5th October 2011 in TV
INTO THE DEN Tim with some of his folding shoes from the Redfoot business
A COMPANY boss wowed the experts on BBC’s Dragons' Den with his ‘folding shoes’ but failed to scoop an investment.
Entrepreneur Tim Smith, whose Redfoot business is an off-shoot from the long-established Bacup Shoe Company, did not get the record £300,000 investment he was looking for, despite all five judges being impressed with his pitch and head for figures.
In the programme, which was aired on Monday, 25-year-old Tim pitched to the five Dragons - Peter Jones, Theo Paphitis, Deborah Meaden, Hilary Devey and Duncan Bannatyne.
He was offering opportunity to own 10 per cent of his business in exchange for £300,000 investment - a figure never given away on the show before.
Tim, who lives in Manchester, said: “I think the sales structure is difficult to understand and my brother and my father, who also own the business not being here was probably a negative.
“I think there was just too much risk for the amount of money I was asking for.”
The Dragons loved Tim’s confident pitch and Deborah Meaden and Hilary Devey were so intrigued with the folding shoe idea they even tried on a pair.
However, it was the fact Tim’s company Redfoot was owned by a holding company with three directors, Tim, his dad and his brother that put off the Dragons who did not want to be junior partners in a family business.
In 2010, Redfoot had a turnover of £1.3million and this year it is on track for a turnover of £2million.
