Transcription
We both have chocolate. We're obsessed by it. We're basically just force-feeding each other constantly. Yeah, last over there.
[Music]
Chalk and cheese, Barton and Ernie, or something. I think that's probably what we like as a partnership. Yeah, we complement each other quite well, I'd say. I'm contrast. Yeah, of course.
[Music]
Hello dragons. My name is Morag and this is Paz. We're the finders of Bad Brownie. We make and sell a range of gourmet flavored chocolate brownies. We're here today to ask you for an investment of sixty thousand pounds in return for fifteen percent of our company.
When we started just over a year and a half ago, we were baking out of a tiny kitchen and the oven was so basic, it had one shelf that actually worked. We were baking a couple hundred brownies a week and we took them in my battered old van and micro to the markets and sold them. Today, we have our own production units in southeast London which we designed and had built to our specifications. We bake between two and five thousand brownies a week nowadays and we sell these direct to consumers at a number of high-end food markets around London.
Morag and I are complete foodies. We've done over a hundred flavors since we started. Some of them include our best-selling salted caramel. We also have a bacon and maple syrup brownie. Does work, promise you. Our turnover to date is in excess of three hundred thousand. With investments in the next twelve months, we project to turnover in excess of eight hundred thousand. We would use your investment together with our own capital to open our first shop in central London.
As mentioned, that we are foodies, but we're also massive feeders and we'd like to start on that journey with you by offering you some samples of our brownies. Sweet treats are the offering from Paz and Morag, who are seeking sixty thousand pounds in return for a fifteen percent share in their brownie business. Really good brownies.
[Music]
More examples have given serial restaurateurs Sarah Willingham an appetite to find out more. What makes them so good? They're bad. We don't hold back on anything, anything at all. So they're absolutely packed full of really good dark chocolate, loads of butter, and loads of any ingredient that makes the flavors really, really stand out.
It's interesting that you're talking about wanting to open a shop. Just sort of paint a picture of this store because this is where you want to spend the money. Okay, so it would be in central London, sort of Soho, Covent Garden, sort of an area where there are other stores that sound sort of single product. Whose creative chef? We have hired a creative chef. We no longer bake the brownies.
Okay, so you guys just run the business? Most recently. Yes. And have you taken a salary out of this? We take fifteen thousand each at the moment. Yes. Are you partners? No, you're not. No. Cookie. So fifteen thousand each, you can live off that, can you? We each have very supportive partners, but yes, we do. And I must say, I've never eaten brownies like this. So it's a big tipper. Ten out of ten. But your retail model at the moment, he's not going to work. And you're gonna need a lot more than sixty thousand, a lot more. And that's what worries me. That, you know, you don't gonna show up, you know, start making losses. It makes a profit, and then you want more money. Yeah. So I know I have to figure about this.
Brownie points for their product, but Paz and Morag's plans to set up shop in one of London's priciest postcodes is fast becoming a sticking point in the den. I'd be amazed if you got a site in Soho or Covent Garden without paying a significant premium for it. So the sixty thousand pounds is in addition to our our own capital that we all have as well. To all, we'd be putting some of our own money into it, of course. For this site, rent, yeah, staff cost. That is a lot of brownies you're gonna have to sell. So how many of you planning on selling? Twenty thousand turnover a month. And what's your gross profit on that? It runs out approximately fifty percent. Why is this so expensive to make? So the ingredient cost itself is approximately forty-two pence per three pound fifty brownie. Okay. And then what else goes into that? Packaging. We allow for approximately ten pence per brownie. What would the labor, the labor to this be? So doing fifteen thousand brownies, forty pence. So forty pence. So you've got ingredients, you've got packaging, and you've got labor. That adds up to ninety-two P out of three pounds fifty. And you were saying before your gross margin is fifty percent. So as one pound seventy, you're about to torpedo. But it's a lovely business because because you're saying that your gross margin is your gross margin is horrendous.
House and Morag are in danger of sinking as Nick Jenkins blows a hole in their numbers. Sarah Willingham, the dragon with high street eatery expertise, has her dinner. I mean, I've opened so many central London sites, but with costs, you will not make any money on five grand a week net turnover. It's impossible. The economics of it don't work. I can't invest and I'm afraid of math. Okay, thank you. So the thought of opening a shop is is by far the wrong thing to even consider doing. But you can continue to make it work in the markets and you can continue to make it work by potentially renting space within other key delicatessens. But it's not an investment where I think I can even make a small return, nil, a bonus, sizable one. So I won't be investing and I'm out.
Paz and Morag's plans to branch into retail proving a tough sell as Peter Jones joins Sarah Willingham in walking away from the deal. Our Deborah Meaden or Nick Jenkins prepared to turn their vision into a reality?
[Music]
Guys, I actually, I want to be able to eat those fudge brownies. So I am desperate for you to succeed. Unfortunately, I do think the retail is the wrong route to go down. They're lovely, but as an investment, I I don't get it. So I'm afraid of it. I think it will be very difficult to turn this into a retail concept by the time you've added on the rent and the manager's cost and their and the staff. That's an incredibly difficult business to be in. And so I look forward to eating more of it, but I'm, but I'm afraid I can't invest. I'm out.
Four dragons are now out. With over 40 years retail experience, his name is Touka Suleiman, poised to pull down the shutters on Paz and Morag's pitch. The real question for me is, how much money you guys going to put into the retail? Yeah, approximately twenty-five thousand. And how much cash have you got in the business? You mean waiting in the bank account? Oh, yeah, thirty-five at the moment. You got thirty-five? We have assets of about forty. Sorry, twenty-five thousand at the moment as well. Come instead. If you love none, none. I can envision seeing this in a thousand square foot shop where you got a fifty flavor sitting there and you've got a kitchen in the back making them. If people come to you, right? Because you are the brownie in London. So do I want to have their journey with you?
[Music]
Gonna be good. Offer. I'll give you all the money, but I want thirty-five percent of the business. Okay. Would you mind if we have a quick shower? That was. Thank you. Thank you. A surprising development as Touka Suleiman goes against the perceived wisdom of the den. He's prepared to bankroll Paz and Morag's assault on the high street, but he wants twenty percent more equity than the pair were originally looking to give away. Thank you so much for your offer. And it is much higher than a percentage than we had wanted to give. And goodness, I almost don't have the nerve to ask, but is there any opportunity for you to reduce that to thirty percent? It was the highest that we would are prepared to give away. Okay, guys, I don't want to take away your baby. Yeah, I'll give you two good time and I'll go to thirty percent. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. Well done, guys. Congratulations. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Sticking to their guns over their high street shop concept has paid off for Morag and Paz. They leave the den with the only dragon persuaded to share their vision and a crucial sixty thousand pounds of his cash. I wasn't expecting an offer from him at all. Take your time. There's no amazing. Take your time. It's an amazing place.
[Music]
You.