Posted on September 5, 2011 by John Cronin
Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce (AGCC) has confirmed that it is to relocate to new offices, having agreed to a pre-let at a new build scheme in Aberdeen.
AGCC is to relocate to new office accommodation at Aberdeen Energy and Innovations Parks. AGCC has agreed a pre-let on 4,780 sq ft of floor space at The Hub (artists impression pictured) which is scheduled for completion in summer 2012. AGCC is to relocate from slightly large offices nearby and expects to see only a marginal rise in accommodation costs.
The Hub is a low-carbon, 13,500 sq ft building that is expected to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’. The two-storey building will offer Grade A office space along with approximately 2,000 sq ft of ground floor space suitable for exhibitions. The speculative scheme is being constructed at the Aberdeen Energy Park, which is the sister site to the Aberdeen Innovation Park.
The Hub is part of a joint venture between Scottish Enterprise and Buccleuch Property. Formed in July, 2010 the joint venture aims to invest £10m in the business parks, with several of the nine multi-let buildings being targeted for refurbishment. The two parks are a key component of the ambitious Energetica project which aims to create a world-class, mixed-use development zone north of Aberdeen.
Aberdeen Energy and Innovation Parks offers a range of accommodation with office suites available from 250 sq ft and serviced office facilities are available. Quoted rental prices are in the range £12.75 per sq ft to £20 per sq ft. Marketing agents are CB Richard Ellis.
Posted in Aberdeenshire |
Tagged Business Parks, Rental Prices, Serviced Offices |
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Posted on September 5, 2011 by Nell Frizzell
“Will any of these budding entrepreneurs walk away with their money?” asks Evan Davis in this week’s Dragons’ Den introduction. Why do you ask Evan? Is Hilary going to mug them? Is Peter Jones a notorious pick pocket? I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.
First up we have the husband and wife team of To Chan and Karen Ho who have brought with them a tank of whitebait. Ah, no. It’s a fish pedicure. You know – the places where you can get habitat-starved fish to eat your dead skin. Like a David Attenborough deep sea documentary, only you can find them at every festival, train station and high street. To and Karen want £150,000 for 30% equity so they can open two more shops.
Peter Jones the Brave volunteers to give the fish a testmunch. “It feels very odd and it’s likely to make me sweat,” says the communications millionaire. Some people pay a lot for that in Soho, Peter.
“I do feel very different to when I went in,” Peter continues. Probably because you’ve just taken part in the most undramatic Jaws sequel known to man, beast or fish. To and Karen are more than just amateur Aquarians: both did science at Oxford and then went on to work as consultants, in Karen’s case at Lehman Brothers. So, at least they’ll have a good reading list while the fish are digesting.
Hilary explains that when she goes to nail bars she sits there and calculates their profit. You can just imagine how much fun she is at hen dos. Sadly, To and Karen’s reticence about quick, mass market growth puts Hilary’s talons out of joint and she’s out.
“Tanks and cages make me feel sad,” says part-Greenpeace-hero-part-Rainbow-presenter Deborah Meaden, so she’s also out. MC Bannatyne points out that “Everybody can copy it,” while Theo Paphitis responds with a characteristically odd “You get a tick in the box, but I don’t quite get to a yes.” He’s such a poet.
Next up is Scott and Lee (wait, weren’t they in Steps? With come girl called Lisa?) with their new fitness craze Ski-Hop. Well, skipping certainly seemed to work out for Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed. However, the Dragons seem underwhelmed. “You’ve got a long way to go to convince me to invest £100,000 in a skipping rope,” says Theo, apparently much summing up the mood in the warehouse.
The most awkward pitch of the evening (possibly the entire year) comes courtesy of the Teeside sign maker Alan Pearson. Alan just about manages to stutter, sigh and wince that he sells street name plates and some sort of plastic container – a “maintenance-friendly accessory” whatever the hell that is – before his pitch grinds to a uncomfortable, but undeniably peaceful stop. He had wanted £100,000 for 10% but as his mind goes blanker than Paris Hilton’s CV, the chances of a decent offer seem unlikely. He doesn’t know his gross from his net, 50% from 100% or margin from mark-up. He also paid himself somewhere between £40,000 and £4,000 over last year.
“You would make my foot itch” says Hilary. Oh well, at least he delivered the entire pitch like someone on the penalty line. Actually, make that the firing line.
The next pitch is a hand-held joystick for playing online poker. Duncan puts his hand in for a quick (not to mention losing) round before the grilling commences. Things go about as well as a pair of twos squaring up to a royal flush played by a psychic Mafioso.“Your previous track a record makes it likely that I will lose my money,” says Theo. Ouch.
Next up we have the fashionable East London twins Polly and Charlotte Vickery who seem to have come ready for a quick jumble sale – their clothing rail bulging with tops. Imagine Lily and Sarah Allen, but if one of them was blonde and neither of them had ever made any money. Polly and Charlotte’s label, Brat and Suzie, makes t-shirts and tops featuring the original designs of professional illustrators. These garments have then featured in Closer and Cosmopolitan (which are magazines, for those of you reading this in a pair of John Deere dungarees or a hessian sack.) The girls finish off each others’ sentences, want to start making dresses and named the label after their childhood pets. So far, so cute. Until they reveal that for each illustration – basically the entire selling point for the garment – they only pay the illustrator £20. That’s actually less than the cost of a single t-shirt. Which, from a business point of view is fantastic. Just not quite so fantastic for the penniless illustrators and possibly not their best PR move. Hilary “I’m really in to fashion” Devey sadly thinks the business is too risky for her investment and Polly and Charlotte leave empty handed.
After a quick bronco-bucking demonstration of a motorbike seatbelt fails to win the entrepreneur a single buck, we come on to the last pitch of the show.
Andy Bates’ career as a fire fighter came to an end a few years ago when he was involved in a high speed motor collision. So, consequently, he’s designed a really, really fast car. Well, of course. According to Evan Davis, this is “a compelling story from the passionate entrepreneur.” Y ou could also argue that this is a compelling story of a moth taking up a light bulb-engineering business, but what the hey. Andy is looking for £50,000 for 10% in his Sabre motorbike-powered car which can, apparently, be driven on actual roads too.
Despite the potential for expansion in to the American and Swiss market, most of the dragons scatter from Andy’s pitch like pigeons in front of a moped. Unsurprisingly, the petrolhead Peter Jones makes an offer of £50,000 for 35%. Duncan Bananatime then offers all the money for 50% but dropping that share to just 25% after a couple of successful years. Poor old Andy starts sweating like a pig in a Danepak factory under the strain of the decision. But, in the end, he very sensibly opts for Captain Carburettor aka Peter Jones.
So, from flesh-eating fish to bike-powered cars – it’s been a funny old show. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a brand new maintenance-friendly accessory I just can’t wait to play with. Whatever it is.
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Posted on September 2, 2011 by John Cronin
A well-known night club and rock venue in Blackpool has been purchased by the local council who plan to build new offices on the site.
The Tache club (pictured – source) on Cookson Street has been purchased by Blackpool Council for £400,000 and is set to be demolished by early 2012. The site was included in a compulsory purchase order issued in January.
The night club is on land targeted for a £250m mixed-use development known as The Talbot Gateway. The proposed scheme, amounting to 1.1m sq ft of floor space, is to include a supermarket, retail outlets, offices and a new transport interchange. Developers for the scheme are regeneration specialists Muse Developments.
As part of the Talbot Gateway scheme (masterplan), Blackpool Council is to spend £28m on new civic offices. The building will offer approximately 80,000 sq ft of floor space and will accommodate staff relocating from existing offices in the town. Talbot Gateway will offer in the region of 330,000 sq ft of office space with the aim of creating a new business district in the town.
The cost of the new council offices is being met through the sale of other council buildings including Westgate House in South Shore which is currently being demolished. The 240 staff have relocated to council-owned Progress House in Marton, which will be subsequently sold, and to serviced offices at Blackpool Football Club.
The Tache club is to remain open until the end of the year. Manager Ronald Blunden told the Blackpool Gazette that he is planning a final encore: “We are thinking of having a mini festival near the end, with the bands that have played here over the years.”
Construction work is scheduled to start in early 2012.
Posted in Lancashire |
Tagged Demolitions, Public Sector, Talbot Gateway |
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Posted on September 1, 2011 by Rob Powell
A serviced office provider has opened its second business centre in the City of London.
The newly refurbished offices from i2 Office are in Aldersgate, a short walk from the company’s existing City offices in Lloyds Avenue.
Philip Grace, CEO of i2 Office, commented; “We had an excellent response to our first City location and we are delighted to have been able to secure space in such a prestigious building. This will enable us to meet the demand, which undoubtedly exists, for flexible but high quality office space in this thriving business area.”
The Grade-A offices have a capacity of 250 workstations and are on the doorstep of the largest swimming pool in the City at Virgin Active.
The company also operates serviced offices in London’s Marylebone, Glasgow, Leeds and Milton Keynes.
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Posted on August 31, 2011 by John Cronin
A commercial property investment company has announced the completion of refurbishment works at a landmark office building in Birmingham.
Salmon Property has now completed partial refurbishment works at One Victoria Square, a large office building in Birmingham city centre (pictured).
One Victoria Square, located only 200m New Street Station, is interconnected to a second office building called Swallow House. The ninth floor has been refurbished and offers 6,500 sq ft of floor space that could be split into two. Rental prices are available on request.
Salmon Property purchased the 118,000 sq ft multi-let office property in January for £17.5m from vendors Serviced Offices UK which is a joint venture between Aviva Investors and Hermes. At the time of purchase the building was running at an occupancy rate of 88% with tenants including serviced office providers Regus, Lloyds Banking Group and the Home Office.
Commenting on the property purchase, James Bladon, of agents DTZ said: “One Victoria Square attracted good interest because it presents realistic active management opportunities to add value through lease re-gears, refurbishment, re-letting and the development of surplus sites.”
The £17.5m purchase price gave a yield of 8.3% on an average rental price of £13 / sq ft. Matthew Meaden, fund manager for Salmon Harvester Opportunity Fund, said: “This property offers us numerous opportunities for improvement. The tenant profile is strong but rents are low for such a well located office […] there are some voids for us to further increase our returns.”
Sole marketing agents are Jones Lang LaSalle.
Posted in West Midlands |
Tagged Renovations, Rental Prices, Serviced Offices |
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Posted on August 29, 2011 by Nell Frizzell
Whichever ‘creative’ convinced the Dragons that the opening sequence should show them posing as Anthony Gormley statues while Eric Claptonlite guitarsturbates underneath, gets a slap on the back from me. Ludicrously funny every time.
For those of you who have been passed out in a Jacuzzi for the last five weeks, the Dragons are hotel and healthclub owner Duncan Bannatyne, leisure expert Deborah Meaden, retail magnate Theo Pathites, telecoms giant Peter Jones and Hilary Duvey, who made her millions in haulage. And no, I don’t know what telecoms giants or retail magnates actually do either.
First up is the former-actor Darren Madison and the director Helen Wright. Well, if actors can do anything it’s beg for change from their acquaintances. Black curtains are stripped off to reveal 2D stage sets, which is apt considering the acting style with which the pitch is delivered. Polka Dot Pantomimes sing their way through a thigh-slapping pitch about needing some investment. Well, you know what they say: when it comes to business there is nothing like a lightning costume change and some smiling Aryan children to get the ball rolling.
“Duncan Bannatyne looks confused,” says Evan Davis. It’s probably just wind. So, what will Polkadot Pantomimes spend this money on? Scenery, props, costume, marketing and special effects apparently. Bring on the underwater midnight pantomime!
What’s their biggest theatre, asks Deborah? “Clacton.” A word that brings joy to the heart of investors everywhere. Hilary thinks they could succeed eventually, without giving away 20% of their business. “I think your passion with probably get you there”: the very slogan used by the Clactontourist board. Finally, Peter Jones praises their visually arresting pitch. “Even the kids were perfect.” Alright Peter. Sadly Darren and Helen leave with nothing.
“The dragons always like to see an entrepreneur walking up the steps with some tasty fayre in their hands,” says Evan. Fayre? What is this? Dragons Denne: The Restoration Years? Anyway, chef Paul DeCosta is making sexy, seductive, sensual and gorgeous chocolate. “I suppose I’m massaging you from the inside.” Oooh, blimey. I hope those bars aren’t ribbed.
After a few subliminal flashes of clock, traffic lights, clock and locker we have Kate Castle with what appears to be a Dog in a Bag. I’m not sure, but I think the RSPCA may have a problem with that. Ah, hold on. No. It’s Bog in a Bag. Now that’s a different kettle of faeces altogether. It is, put simply, a stool with a hole, a bin bag and a sanitary pad to “absorb any liquid.” Yum.
Kate is looking for £50,000 for 15%. “Peter Jones looks bewildered.” In fact, he seems really rather desperate to be allowed to poo through his own stool. He’s all but cutting through that leather armchair as we speak. Kate has trained with a major supermarket, worked for a DIY chain as an import analyst and now struggles to get children to shit through holes. Duncan calls it “The New Commmode” which sounds like a late-70s New York musical movement to me.
“You’re very investable,” says Peter Jones. Well, it’s a chat up line of sorts, I suppose. “The camping and caravanning market could really turn over some really chunky numbers,” follows up Deborah. Wow. Thanks Deborah. That’s a mental image I hadn’t banked on. She then offers £50,000 but wants 30% of the business.
Hilary then offers the full amount for 25%. It’s a bidding war between blonde and brunette. Oh, apparently not. Kate goes for the Wedge Welly magnate Theo Pathites instead.
Next up is Steven Myberg: a South African artist looking for cash. Actors, directors, artists: and they said the Arts Council funding cuts weren’t going to have an effect. Steve wants £70,000 for 20% of his swinging chair business. For some reason Steve starts his pitch with probably the most ill-advised story about Apartheid-era police brutality the Dragons have ever heard. Quite how physical abuse of a minor will help to sell swinging bum-shelves remains, I’m afraid, beyond me. “I want Myburgh to touch everyone in theUK,” says Steve. Shudder.
Sadly, even Hilary cannot be bought for the price of a copper flower, especially as she has been to Morocco, where gardens are adorned with cheaper swinging copper seats.
Other failures include a wing-mirror protector and a hanging basket anti-theft device from the badlands of ruralShropshire
The final pitch comes in the athletic shape of Henry Buckley and JJ Harding, ex-Carphone Warehousers and current chairmen of Jog and Post – a sort of Victorian leafleting business for which young people run across the city delivering leaflets and trying not to get run down by vehicles or whipped by passing policemen. Henry and JJ want £50,000 for 10% of their business. It’s nice of them to synchronise facial hair specially for the pitch. Jog and Post are currently delivering 250,000 leaflets a week in the capital and have 200 joggers working all over London. “We are a small business and we’re bursting at the seams.” Rather like my Uncle Bob in his red tracksuit.
Peter Jones makes an offer for a third of the business, making him an equal partner with the jogging duo. Haulage Hilary, as the owner of a national courier business, offers £70,000 for a 30% share. (Nice move Shoulders!) Duncan Bannatyne then offers £50,000 for 25% which would mean that the beard buddies would keep the deciding vote in the company. Finally, Deborah then offers the full fifty grand, but for just 20% of the business, which is enough, as they say in Hollywood, to seal the deal.
So there you have it: shitting in bin bags, running through London and transvestites in Clacton. It’s all in a Dragon’s day’s work.
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Posted on August 26, 2011 by John Cronin
Owners of a business park in Lanarkshire have secured one of the largest out-of-town office lettings of recent years.
Bellshill-based HFD Group have secured an 80,000 sq ft letting with ScottishPower at their Hamilton International Park (HIP – pictured). The energy giant will bring an additional 1,000 staff to the business park, increasing their on-site headcount to 1,800.
HIP is a 116-acre site situated at Hamilton, 13 miles south east of Glasgow. The fully-developed business park will offer 650,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation within a range of modern office blocks. Serviced office suites from 200 sq ft are available within two buildings. Over the last couple of years HFD has targeted energy companies as preferred tenants for HIP and for offices at their Strathclyde Business Park. Other tenants include oil services company Wood Group and Spanish renewable energy company Gamesa.
HFD are investing a further £50m at HIP with the speculative development of a 223,000 sq ft carbon neutral campus. The campus is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.
The letting is larger than the recent deal secured with The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) for 60,000 sq ft of floor space at the troubled Maxim office park. Commenting on the ScottishPower transaction, a spokesman for HFD said: “We think it is the largest out-of-town letting in the West of Scotland in the last seven or eight years.”
HFD has also enjoyed success this year with one of its more recent office renovation projects. The award-winning, 130,000 sq ft central Glasgow office scheme G1 is currently running at an occupancy rate of over 90%. HFD only completed the development in May 2010.
Rental prices have not been disclosed for the ScottishPower letting.
Posted in Lanarkshire |
Tagged Business Parks, Serviced Offices, Speculative Developments |
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Posted on August 24, 2011 by John Cronin
Plans for a large, controversial office scheme at the site of an historic church in Aberdeen have been approved.
Stewart Milne Developments have been granted conditional planning consent for their £40m Triple Kirks development (pictured). Triple Kirks is a well-known Aberdeen landmark and was once the site of three churches that were constructed in the 1800’s.
The remaining, Listed church spire is to be integrated within the new development of four connected office blocks, the tallest of which being nine stories high. The scheme will create approximately 72,600 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation within a BREAAM ‘Excellent’ building. Stewart Milne acquired the site in 2008 and applied for planning permission in March.
Aberdeen City Council acknowledge the size of the development but believe that there is sufficient demand for office space in Aberdeen. Councillor Kate Dean, commenting on the planning consent said: “We need high-quality office development in the city centre to help sustain all of the local businesses. I fully acknowledge that it is a sizeable scheme – but the applicants have done everything they can to reduce the massing.”
The Triple Kirks site has been the subject of various proposals over three decades but none have come to fruition. The land itself is problematic due to the 1-in-3 slope across the 0.43-acre site.
Commenting on the planning consent Malcolm Deans, MD of Stewart Milne Developments, said: “With planning consent granted, we will be actively marketing the development and are confident that, with the current lack of office space of this quality and stature, we will secure a high profile pre-let.”
Conditions attached to the planning consent relate to satisfactory conclusions of legal agreements over road improvements and affordable housing.
Posted in Aberdeenshire |
Tagged Listed Buildings, Planning |
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Posted on August 22, 2011 by John Cronin
Global infrastructure specialist Balfour Beatty has acquired an office fit-out company in a deal announced to the stock exchange this morning.
Balfour Beatty has invested £8m in the acquisition of Office Projects Group Ltd (OPL), a company specialising in the UK office fit-out market. OPL, with a London-based head office and a regional office in Birmingham, has previously worked on office projects for Balfour Beatty. OPL has annual sales in excess of £40m and typically works with a blue-chip client base including BAA, B&Q and Virgin Group.
In announcing the deal, Balfour Beatty reported: “The acquisition represents a strategic fit with Balfour Beatty’s existing capabilities, further extending the company’s skill base within the [office] fit-out market.”
OPL was co-founded by ex-SAS soldier Neil Laughton and his business partner Andrew Russell in the mid 1990’s. Laughton has been involved in the commercial interiors business since 1984.
OPL has recently completed a £4.3m interior fit-out project for City-based Ignis Asset Management at offices in 150 Cheapside.
Ignis had taken 32,000 sq ft of floor space of the BREEAM ‘Excellent’, landmark building based opposite St Paul’s Cathedral and tasked OPL with providing an environment that would unify teams relocating from two existing City offices.
Commenting on the 15-week project, Joyce Hardie, Head of Facilities at Ignis, said: “Our offices in Marylebone and St Paul’s had no brand consistency and the very fact that we had employees on two different sites meant that the team felt very fragmented and disparate. Our new premises are a true reflection of our business and offer visitors a first-class business lounge environment.”
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Posted on August 22, 2011 by Nell Frizzell
As the camera pans across a smoke-streaked scene of what appears to be the ‘Chim Chim Cheree’ number from Mary Poppins, and the whistling industrial guitars of a particularly sinister rock opera shrieks in, this must be Episode Four of Dragons’ Den.
The five dragons have “the credentials, commitment and the cash,” claims the voiceover. Which is slightly ironic as most of the contestants they will see are clueless, crass and should be committed.
Still, thousands of entrepreneurs have applied so, in the words of a long-suffering boxing teacher, we’d better let them have a go. It’ll be funny to see their pain if nothing else.
I am very interested to see that Hilary has opted, yet again, for that timeless “eagle dressed as an astronaut” look with her voluminous white jacket.
Former radio DJ Bob Davis is first up. Oh look, he’s wearing a bow tie! And he sounds like Noddy Holder – this can’t possibly go wrong. Bob-a-Job is looking for £50,000 in return for 20% of his company. And what does this magical company do, to lure its CEO away from the glamorous world of late night phone-ins and spinning discs, I hear you ask? It manufactures Bob’s Box, of course: a huge bingo-cum-crystal-maze fun tank for corporate events and, one assumes, fetish nights. Hilary gets in straight away; lucky she’s wearing her personal protective equipment a.k.a the shouldernator.
“It looks like a very large bingo blower” spots the eagle-eyed Deborah Meaden. Honestly, you can’t get anything passed this woman. So far, Bob has made £600 a day and is looking to share his box with the nation. But let us hear more about the man behind the box: he’s known in the entertainment industry as the “car event king.” Imagine The Stig, if under that white suit was a red-faced man from the Midlands wearing a bow tie. Oh, and he also plays Thomas the Tank Engine at corporate events. Despite these rock-solid credentials, Peter Jones is worrying about Bob’s debt. In fact, he’s calling a grown man in a bowtie who used to pretend he was a train naïve. Who would have thought it?
Duncan then weighs in and forces Bob to climb the stairs all over again and re-present his pitch, for his existing company. Which, to Bob’s credit, he does very well. Although he doesn’t actually dress up as a monkey and play the drums, he does manage to convince Hilary to invest.“I know the other dragons will think I’ve lost my marbles, but I just loved being in the box.”
The second contestant, Camilla, loses out because of her slightly unpersuasive financial projections. Oh well, at least she’ll have a “fabulous home” to go back to.
Next up is former car dealer Fraser Allen, who is pitching his little piece of poolside revolution: The deckchair safe. He wants £150,000 but is offering just 5% ownership of the company. Which is a little like paying £25 for a beach towel, only to be handed a flannel. No wonder Deborah Meaden gives him a dressing down. Thank god he didn’t do the pitch in his trunks.
Remarkably, at this point, Dave doesn’t just climb in to the small blue box for a little cry. Instead he turns to Peter Jones for salvation. Sadly, it’s a no from Peter, which prompts Theo to go in to some ludicrously tortured analogy about a mythical balloon party.
Now we have the high speed contestant montage including labradors, shorts, sieves and something that looks quite like a urinal. Oh, sorry, no. It’s a mobile steaming shave unit. Imagine Man in the Iron Mask, as designed by Armitage Shanks. The dragons simply suggest holding one’s head over a bowl instead: a position I imagine many of them take after a night out in Rotherham with Hilary’s haulage lads and a 14 litre bottle of whisky.
Next up is Mexican chef Marcella and her amazing band of Mariachis. This is like watching The Ten Amigos. Now, I don’t want to play the psychic here, but I have just the tiniest suspicion that Marcella may have seen Levi Roots’ pitch, as she sings about fresh flavours and Mexican recipes. “A vivacious pitch,” says Evan, which is one way to describe a room full of salsa, pina colada and sequined men strumming guitars.
Marcella is looking for £75,000 to turn her range of Mexican food in to a household name. You know, like Dyno Rod or Tampax. Marcella is already selling to Selfridges and is in discussions with Waitrose, which explains how she has made £50,000 so far. However, Peter Jones isn’t sure about the product name, Rico, and Deborah and Duncan are both out.
Will Theo be interested? Apparently not, although he does give her some useful business advice: to concentrate on one good product. You know, like he has. Hilary then tells Marcella that she should have pitched for £750,000 and Peter Jones believes that she has to find her brand name. So, what’s in a name? Nearly a million quid, apparently.
Following the Mexican stand-off we whizz through baths, Cornish ski-ing and plate-painting pancakes.
This week’s final contestant is Robert Lewis from West Sussex who, in the words of Evan Davis’ voiceover, is “looking to turn thin air in to hard cash”. Have people learned nothing from Paul Daniels?
Robert is looking for a £100,000 investment in exchange for 10% of his company. His design can retro-fit advertising signs in to existing belt security barriers. It is “Neat, tidy and clean” and has produced a profit of £82,000 so far. Robert supplies to cinemas, The National Trust, a chain of pubs and bars and is currently approaching a major highstreet chemist. But why not airports, asks Deborah? This, I fear, is the business equivalent of tearing off a recently-affixed plaster and plunging your manicure in to a barely-healed wound. Either way, Deborah seems to have taken against Robert like Superman took against kryptonite. Duncan is also out.
Theo is impressed but he can’t invest in it because of Robert. Is it his ginger hair? Is it his suit? Is it his huge container load of profit coming from America? Peter Jones says that without the paper print out of an email confirming Robert’s American order he cannot invest either. Apparently Dragon’s Den actually takes place in 1992, rendering everyone involved unable to simply take out their smartphones and check the email online. So, in an extremely canny bit of bartering, Peter Jones offers the money for 100% ownership (later dropping to 49%), inspired by Robert’s 100% confidence in the American deal. This is like watching moose lock antlers: impressive, but not quite as impressive as stags.
Hilary makes an offer of £100,000 for 45%, but Robert still accepts Peter’s offer. Which is a little odd, as the money being offered seems to be less than Robert is going to make from his two containers heading to the States.
Still, mine not to reason why. Theirs but to do and buy. Those mighty five dragons.
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