LUCRATIVE Truffle Plantation Is Slammed By Dragons! | Dragons' Den

[Music] okay hi my name's Paul Thomas and I'll be representing my company mycorrhizal systems and we're looking for an investment of seventy five thousand pounds now microcells systems is a company based around their production of black truffles the truffles are actually form of underground mushroom and it grows in conjunction with tree roots and the demand for these truffles is currently so high that the command more per unit weight then is paid for gold on a wholesale price that's a thousand pounds a kilogram based on last year's prices because of this high value many people have tried to cultivate the truffle but only very few have succeeded what we've developed is an enhanced technique and using this enhanced technique with 2500 trees we can expect a turnover in excess of a million pounds than in this five to seven years what we're asking for is the 75,000 pounds is to buy land so we can set up this plantation there's also the potential of a ten percent profit share and if you take this this will give you an income of in excess of a hundred thousand pounds a year so in summary microsystems represents a environmentally sound financially secure and potentially very high yielding investment so thank you for listening paul has come up with an unconventional plan to use his own research to start a truffle plantation he needs seventy five thousand pounds to buy land and in return he's offering a ten percent share of his profits but before they get down to business Duncan Bannatyne has a problem please please excuse my absolute ignorance yes but I have to ask what is a black truffle I've never heard of them okay sorry yeah it's a very highly prized form of fungus which grows underground and it looks kind of like a warty black lump or mouse but they come on very high prices there you must have had them at the Ivy sprinkled over your paths this food it's the most delicious gourmet tastes wild truffles are rare and because they grow on the roots of trees then a touristy difficult to find Paul says he's found a way of cultivating trees in the laboratory that he guarantees that truffles will grow on so nobody else is trying to culture them in the laboratory environment I don't know anyone in your house culture there obviously it's a very secretive business you can't you can successfully in a repeatable basis culture yes yes I buy everything you said you've got a real innovation here I'm trying to figure out where your stage we're at so I can figure out how one might make some money on the thing okay we're ready to get the tree started and germinated and get them in the field but we haven't produced the truffles so you so what we know right now is that you can do it in the lab yep Paul wants to spend seventy five thousand pounds on buying land for his truffle plantation but Doug Richard has discovered that he hasn't actually grown any truffles yet Simon Woodruff needs convincing how do you know whether this works or not when will you know pretty time before they start yielding will be five to seven years so before we know that we can that they're producing these top yields will be there you've got to wait five to seven years and the investors got to wait five to seven years to see if this works or not so you had these as it appeared so confident yes and you seem to know your subject so well yeah but now I'm thinking this is a great big gamble the Dragons have realized it could be up to seven years before Paul finds out whether his extraordinary venture has succeeded this is a long wait and a big gamble for any investor for 75,000 pounds Peter Jones isn't prepared to take the risk this seems to be such a dream and it's a dream beyond belief all I can tell you is that if it's works guys it's gonna be great over five or seven years you can't expect an investor with any level of solid thoughts apart from this may be a bit of fun to invest in that business presented really well and actually you've come up with something that I suspect is is unique and actually very marketable and I think you should be applauded for that well Rachel you need to hold on to your money you're gonna lose it very quickly if you've got attitude at the end of the day interesting position that Paul's put forward is actually this is an investment in a piece of freehold land with a profit share on what you can yield so actually from that point of view it's actually a pretty good investment because you're investing in a piece of pre-hold land and we all know where land goes ultimately Oh over long periods of time generally speaking it goes up I can invest in land tomorrow I could go and people if somebody could come and pitch here I'll stand up there and say three pieces of land Rachel there you go here's a hundred thousand pounds on what today that's not a reality nonsense I think for me we might as well go and invest in a garden center because that's what the reality is and I'm sure they do I don't think this is ever gonna make money this is a pipe dream from University you've had so I'm out the first dragon is out Paul's truffle plantation has created a huge difference of opinion between Rachel Eleanor and Peter Jones Duncan Bannatyne has thought of a different problem truffles worth more than their weight in gold left in a field if you don't secure your land before you start harvesting their truffles they won't be there when you go harvest them we would have to have very strong fences put in place where's the money coming from for their security yeah that will come as soon as we start to harvest the truffles soon as soon as we start to harvest them and get them out and we know that producing then that fishiest profits would be incorporated I don't know if we print the chicken before the egg and egg before the chicken how can you harvest some of them in stolen and how can you fund security if you haven't harvest in it to fund it it doesn't work ours bizarre he's I think you're in dreamland honestly I think you should really try it in a different method of making money at us yeah so I'm not gonna invest Duncan Bannatyne is out the Dragons are pulling apart Paul's idea bit by bit with no means of protecting his valuable truffles and a seven-year wait for uncertain results Paul's proposal looks more like speculation in land than investment in a business and there's more bad news Paul yes I'm not really interested in buying land and hedging I think that's a it's an elegant proposal I think there's a category of investor will find that attractive but what I find interesting are high-risk high-return investments yeah so I wish you the best of luck but I'm out so far Paul has not persuaded anyone to invest in his adventure Duncan Bannatyne Peter Jones and Doug Richard are all out while they aren't prepared to throw their money into his idea it seems one dragon might be I think this sounds a lot of fun pool I really do think it sounds a lot of fun how much is the land gonna cost we're budgeting the seventy five thousand for the loan but potentially we could get it a lot cheaper how much land five hectares do you know where it is I'd know I've got several I've got a roof what would mean we here this black area here this has to be in a particular part of France yes these are proven areas where it grows wild anyway and they're on the right bedrock the right soil conditions what about if I just want to bought your piece of land how would we did the deal and well I think the end of five to seven years yeah but I get my land back it's my choice yeah and then we're both free to go each other's ways but if I was a truffle plantation on it it's reducing very high yields or it will be worth okay at the very large amount all right and also if I'm going to put the time in as long as it's producing a large amount of truffles like to keep that land going and keep the plantation going so I've got a constant income from it if we good today well I think if I don't say the 75,000 pounds plus say a hundred percent return over that period of time a minimum as a as a bottom yeah the land would then transfer into the company and he owned by the company yep so far in the Dragons Den Simon Woodruff has not made an investment but he's showing interest in paul's grand plan will he go all away and invest what percentage of the company would you give to me I was looking at a 10% profit share or equity share however we work it negotiating what about 25 percent ownership of the company I'm not I'm not really sure I stick possibly let me think about this and I'll come back to you on this one Simon Woodruff is stalling but Rachel Eleanor has yet to show her hand will she decide to gamble on Paul's seventy-five thousand pound adventure I think almost always in business nothing is guaranteed surefire thing there's always risk and uncertainty in business and actually that's the fun of it this is like a pinch little pension fund type investment and I think it's interesting and I'd go in 5050 with Simon on that basis and I would treat it as a speculative investment but I actually like here and I think you need someone to back you are you are you interested so yeah first of all I'm not interested in doing a deal with anybody else involved I'm not interested if Rachel comes in I think we'll have a very very good relationship and I think we'll do other things together and that's what I'm investing in I'd like to be your mentor and I'd like to really help you after a series of battles with Rachel Eleanor Simon Woodruff has finally put his money where his mouth is he wants nothing to do with Rachel and has decided to go it alone and invest the full 75 thousand pounds Paul listen I won't stand in the way of Simon but I'm not set that he doesn't want to do the investment with me but I'm happy for you too to do that deal okay I'm happy with 25 percent yeah and if you're happy it's a deal and you go down and find the land I'll buy it yep okay no troubles right Paul got his money despite the uncertainty Simon Woodruff and Rachel Eleanor were both keen to invest but it was Simon who clinched the deal Simon's answered his critics seven years how long you're gonna wait I'm really upset that you didn't want to go into it's nothing to do with you Rachel I think this is one deal but I just want to do on my own with a guy that I like straight forward it's a relationship it's not just about a deal and as soon as you get three people you know what it's like in bed with three maybe five but it doesn't work please tell me Paul well done are you happy yes yes very happy thoroughly enjoyed our nothing could secured a very good deal with salmon there so yes very happy but I hadn't I hadn't planned on building up such a big business but with Simon's help I think it I think it could be very exciting in a very good now what about there were a couple of them who were just totally negative yeah by what I mean were you surprised to that um no I know I wasn't surprised at all I think I think a couple of people perhaps because I didn't explain explain fully I probably my fault in communicating the idea you've been very polite I mean one of them didn't even know what a truffle waters I mean yeah but that's fine I don't expect them to know what it off or was okay will it really good luck thank you hope it goes well with Simon yes [Applause] you

Channel: Dragons' Den

Views: 351,406

Keywords: Dragons' Den, Dragons' Den UK, UK agriculture, UK farming industry, alternative investments, business acumen, business innovation, entrepreneur pitch, entrepreneur success stories, entrepreneurial journey, entrepreneurship lessons, financial success, fine dining experience, food industry trends, gourmet cooking, investment opportunities, investment portfolio, successful investment stories, sustainable agriculture, truffle cultivation, wealth building strategies

Id: JyTlJbWdERI

Length: 11min 49sec (709 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020