Dragons Left Outraged After Supplier's Contract Surfaces "Business Could Close Down" | Dragons' Den

imagine if you can take you know two electrical wires when you touch its spots it's all the time in here in here all the time it's got so much passion and energy and sometimes I have to turn comm yes she brings me back down to the earth Rupesh Thomas from Kerala in India and his parisian wife alex have made sure their tuk-tuk and their business both have room for a dragon or two ready hello dragons my name is Rupesh and I'm the founder of tuk-tuk ciao hello dragons my name is Alex and I'm the co-founder of tooktook chai and also Bhupesh his wife today we are here to pitch 400,000 pounds investments in return for 5% equity coffee drinkers can pick up a variety of ready to drink iced coffees from supermarket shelves yet when it comes to three drinkers the only option they have is iced tea that does not even contain any milk well not anymore with our chai they can as it's the first ready to drink tea with milk and we are the pioneers who have invented and created the concept for iced milk tea we import black tea Leafs from Kerala but I'm originally from and we brew it in large quantities in a factory to get the authentic taste of Chari at the moment the brewing and the filtering is manual so we need to install a machine into the factory which is why we are here after the soft launch last year in March we were listed into Harvey Nichols and most importantly got a listing nationally with Sainsbury's so this is our journey so far and we invite you dragons to hop on board with us and take took to chai to another level together thank you hoping to fly with their chai a Rupesh and Alex Thomas thank you thank you well they're aiming to prize 100,000 pounds out of a dragon in return for a 5% equity stake in they're ready to drink iced milk tea company [Music] and their three-wheeler has already taken Deborah Medan on a journey down memory lane [Music] I spent many an hour backpacking around India in a tuk-tuk that looked nothing like that that is the smartest looking tuk-tuk I've ever seen thank you anyway what's your background I I come from nothing yeah basically I came from India 16 years ago just 600 pounds on the hand and yeah I came with the focus full of dreams and the dreams get bigger the hope you know the ambience it's bigger oh yeah here we are in front of great people so every you know that's a journey in itself in misspending North this is our journey so far it sounds like a great story how does that translate into numbers so this year first year we project our turnover to be one hundred and five thousand seven hundred sixty two what's your gross margin the first year is negative why because it cost us we'll make a loss on each unit sold oh I wasn't expecting to stumble across that so early I started all happy talking about the blinking tuk-tuk can you explain the cost price and the loss that you're making on this how much you selling that into Sainsbury's for Sainsbury's specifically told us we are not allowed to talk about our cost price you do understand that I know we're in festers you know so you have got to reveal your cost price you've got to I know Debra hey I don't know why they have said we cannot reveal that I mean that I am I wasn't expecting to get stuck on this quite so quickly [Music] so what I'm so sorry it's it's not it's not because I don't want honestly what are you doing here how can you possibly start with us so for tooka tooka I'm having a conversation well I want to know nothing else but what the cost price is we could actually lose our contract which would mean the business closed down it's not a risk that we can take the quickest place it could be the quickest quick this is lunacy I've never heard in my life of a supply of being able to control the destiny of a business they're not on your board they don't run your company they don't own your business this is your life and your chance can I suggest you go to the back of the room and have a conversation with your wife and you decide when you come back whether you want to talk properly about this business otherwise you're going to be on your tooktook back in the lift very quickly yes of course big risk Kelly can they cut us because of that fish can the cutter suck if they haven't say they'll cut us they've put it in bold actually if I can I cannot I cannot just factory but uh but I knew you go I will go what you say every person Alex have you made a decision yes a big risk but she's I go by water got collars yeah say a one-pound sorry what's that one pound we sell to Sainsbury's and it costs you how much to make one pound and three pence repairs we got there I know I realize you're the first person I've ever seen going to retail selling a product cheaper than it's costing you to make why did you do that because it the time it took to perfect that recipe because we could take shortcuts do use flavorings use extracts but it's not the real thing so the development process took us two years to develop for Rupesh look I mean [Music] in business you take risk yeah but you don't gamble so what you're doing is gambling right now if you don't get investment you're gonna go bust assuming that you're lucky today yeah and you get a dragon to invest in you yeah and you've installed a new machine what will it cost you then once the machine goes in per unit yep it'll be 55 hands but it takes about six months to get it installed so how much will you lose in the next six months before the machine is installed eleven thousand pounds so you've come into the den your value in the business of two million pounds you might install a machine please God when you got the investment in six months time in the meantime for every product you selling you'll still lose money I think all that can help you is just keep pumping my hands in my pocket because you're gonna need more and more and more money so unfortunately I'm not going to invest on your journey and I'm out the good news is it's really nice thank you could really like thank you no I completely disagree with Tate I like your strategy I don't know I'm actually a sweet I'm asking what you think when I advise and I have advised people to do exactly that thing which is you know you can sell it a pound sell it prove it and the next run we make our money or got absolutely no issues I like that thinking and I really really like you guys I really like you guys because you've got an awful lot of stuff right there is a but [Music] for me the biggest issue is that you're going to have to raise more funds you're trying to enter new market which means you're going to have to do a lot of promotions and that's what starts driving your margin death so you're not at the stage in the business where I personally would feel confident enough to back in so I won't be investing I know Debra Medan rates the product but not its prospects and ends her interest Jenny Campbell has been sitting quietly does the banking Queen buy into the chai business the products lovely yeah but for me your journey is too long to success and that's too much risk for me to think about putting 100,000 pounds into a business for only 5% I wish all the best and I'm out I love your enthusiasm both of you it's a fantastic and it's it's really important to have dreams and you've got this amazing drive that you really want to make it and I actually love the name tooktook chai it's very very catchy she kept really really really good and I would love to work with you guys but I have one concern and that's the high sugar content this includes natural sugar as well from the milk because milk is called natural sugar in it so that's why also tiny bit high the taste is nice but I feel that today's market people want something less sugar more healthier so I'm gonna say I'm up tase Levani decides the chai offering isn't his cup of tea the tooktook business is stalling and only Peter Jones remains he's already sent the entrepreneurs to the wall once has he seen anything to warrant a second visit I tasted this and I was shocked good bad be really good thank you they're really really good however you're going to need a lot of money to have a chance of this brand even making it bogey capitalist and I'm really I'm very concerned for you and whilst it will be lovely to be part of that journey I have to go with my business head so repair Alex it's been wonderful to meet you I think you've been fantastic and that's one of the reasons why I'm going to make you an offer thank you Peter that's that's a lovely to hear and I'm going to make you an offer for all of the money a hundred thousand pounds but I want 33 and 1/3 percent of the company you want to have a little chat with the back the chair having arrived in the UK with 600 quid in his pocket Rupesh now has an offer of a hundred thousand pounds to consider with his wife Alex but Pizza Jones is audacious demand of a third of their company in return is nearly seven times the five percent equity stake that the pair are offering will they accept an equal partner or decline the deal [Music] but she's making me do this all right Peter fine let's do it you've got to do it world of really please the entrepreneurs except Peter Jones his terms and get the hundred thousand pounds they were seeking and they leave the den as a tuk tuk tree it's going gear well almost got a dragon we wanted it's 11 out of 10 you can't get any better than that like I think you know yeah we hope so too bye Oh God we'll definitely need reviewing some course a little to try for sure that'll be very strict I'll be the tooktook dragon then right one dragon down one drag let's take a chair away yeah and then there were four yeah I shall quite miss Peter right next stop Sainsbury's Anya stop it Rick Rick Rick you

Channel: Dragons' Den

Views: 1,369,901

Rating: 4.8503909 out of 5

Keywords: dragon's den, dragon's den uk, evan davis, deborah meaden, peter jones, touker suleyman, tej lalvani, business pitching, entrepreneur, game show, reality tv, shark tank, business, entrepreneurship, events, workshops, connectingpeople, businessgrowth, startups, entrepreneurs, professionals, venturecapital, community, motivationalspeaking, membersclub, tuk tuk chai, tea, ice tea, virginstartups, foodpreneur, dragonsden, #crowdfunding, networkandchill, networkingevents, platform, virginstartup, chaitea

Id: 7mpyGJtyRe8

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 21 2019