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Name | Rob Law |
Pitching | Trunki |
Investment Required | £100,000 for 10% |
Investment Secured | No investment |
When in the Den | September 2006 |
Brief Description | A hard plastic ride-on suitcase for kids |
Rob Law's Trunki pitch crumbled (literally) when Theo Paphitis broke the strap on the suitcase for tots.
The faulty hook the Dragon wrenched off was quickly fixed after the Den and when we spoke to Rob he was proud to announce, "In 2008 a Trunki sold every 3.5 minutes".
Rob has since been continuing to expand his range of travel products for children and families and has recently secured a much needed cash injection to fund his expansion plans with a private equity investor of £200,000 for 10% which, as he points out, "values the business at £2m after three years of trading".
He feels that the company hasn't grown as much as it could have in a more favourable economic climate but is determined to stay positive: "As an entrepreneur I always like to see the opportunity in everything and [I] really think the recession gives us some great opportunities that we can continue to capitalise on such as recruitment".
Rob is hoping to add an administrator extraordinaire to his team of twelve, snapping up talented staff who may have been made redundant from less fortunate companies.
With an innovative travel pillow on the shelves and other products in the pipeline, the Trunki inventor is looking forward to the economic upturn.
Rob was interviewed for this article on 29 June 2009
When Theo visited Rob in the summer of 2009 he was shown a variety of new products, including the Booster Pack, a backpack that doubles for the school run and on holidays becomes a car booster seat.
Rob was able to report a turnover for the year ending February 2009 of £1.14m bringing in a net profit of £36,000.
Theo was impressed with the turnover figures but was less so by his net profit. "Lack of profit is like a cancer - it will kill you of very slowly" he warned the Bristol based entrepreneur.
He added that cashflow remains a huge problem for small businesses as banks tighten their lending criteria in the face of the economic downturn.
The video update was first transmitted on 6 September 2009
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