The mention of the word inventor often conjures up images of a white-haired scientist going into a shed at the bottom of the garden and coming out three days later with a strange-looking piece of equipment that bears a passing resemblance to a radio he used to own.
Michael Pritchard is, on the surface at least, not like that. The Ipswich-based businessman – and inventor – came up with the Anyway spray because he found it ridiculous that a household cleaner could not be sprayed properly if it is held upside down. After coming up with a dip tube that solved the problem with millions of tiny holes, the next step was to sell the licensing rights to manufacturers. Pritchard felt he would get a big boost if he braved the five investors-turned-TV personalities in the BBC’s Dragons’ Den programme.
“There were three reasons I went on the show,” says Pritchard. “One is their Rolodex and the contacts they’ve got, and also the gravitas they give to the project. Two, the money they provide is clearly important, and, three, the PR that’s generated by being viewed by millions of people.”
The initial aim was £125,000 for a 5% stake in the business, but Pritchard eventually gave up 20% in return for investment from Dragons Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones to help sort out licensing agreements. He says that he had prepared well for the Den by asking friends to act as Dragons to make him think about the kind of information they would be after. “I think too many people don’t give them enough respect. If I’d not prepared, they would have torn me to pieces,” says Pritchard. Since he started working with the Dragons, Pritchard says he is in regular contact and he likes the fact that his 15-strong team can ask for as little or as much help as they need from the Dragons’ teams.
Pritchard says the interest in the product has been very good. “The people I’ve been speaking to from manufacturers have said they’ve been getting hundreds of emails from staff who had seen the show who said: ‘It’s amazing; it would go really well with this or that product’,” he says. The Anyway spray is aimed at two potential markets, the aerosols and finger trigger-spray sectors, and Pritchard says he is working to develop more formal relationships and carry out second-level trials. “The aerosol people have been more excited because of the environmental benefits of replacing VOCs (volatile organic compounds) with harmless gases, but everyone we’ve talked to has said they could utilise the technology,” he says. “I’d hope to have something on supermarket shelves by the middle of 2011.”
Ahead of the pack
Kate Waddell, managing director for consumer brands at design agency Dragon Rouge, is impressed by Anyway and says a manufacturer that brings it on board would benefit from being a consumer champion that could have rivals running to keep up. “This dip tube answers a universally felt consumer frustration and potentially opens up other product usage, without running the risk of reducing purchase frequency of the manufacturer’s product,” she says. “It’s also greener, which makes it a big plus for the dark green consumer and a feel-good product for the light greens.”
Waddell says the best inventions on the show are the ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ innovations. “In an age of space travel, medical advances and mushrooming technology, it seems ridiculous that we even have to consider the challenge of aerosols that won’t spray other than upright, but we do,” she says. “The best inventions are the blindingly obvious answers to problems that no one has hitherto been able to conceive and often ideas that have languished without what is a modest kick-start investment.”
The British Aerosol Manufacturers Association is working with Pritchard to ensure his team fully understands how aerosols work. While it maintains that there is unlikely to be a one-size-fits-all product for aerosols, BAMA confirms that Anyway is something that would catch the sector’s eye. “The industry is always interested in innovations and companies will doubtless want to investigate this one as well,” says a spokesman.
Tetra Pak, too, has suggested the combination of waste reduction, consumer satisfaction and production costs means the Anyway could be a success. Retail manager Ian Williamson says Pritchard’s next challenge will be industrial scaling and marketing. “While packaging may not always be the most immediately exciting areas for consumers, shows like Dragons’ Den that highlight products like Anyway help communicate the problems we help solve and the benefits we bring as a packaging industry,” he says.
And what about Pritchard? Anyway spray is by no means his first invention. Indeed, his Life Saver bottle that turns dirty water into clean, drinkable water in seconds has been a hit with the Ministry of Defence and he is receiving enquiries from armies around the world. He would also like to see it mass produced so it could be easily sent to zones that are hit by natural disasters, such as flooding, to be able to clean water. Having worked for others to get a good commercial grounding, Pritchard says he likes being his own boss. “My ideal would be to get up each morning, go to work and we just get on inventing,” he says. It would seem foolish to rule out more ideas coming out of the garden shed.
TINY BOX COMPANY
Business graduate Rachel Watkyn and former radio DJ Christian Richardson secured £60,000 of funding in September 2008 for their recycled gift box start-up Tiny Box Company and have not looked back.
“Our turnover would be about 350% up on last year,” says Watkyn when Packaging News catches up with her a year after she appeared in the Den. “We are growing quite rapidly with a lot of new clients and ranges.”
Watkyn says going in the Den was key to the company’s success, and says one the biggest benefits is being able to link up with other businesses in a similar situation. “I speak to the office about once a week, and the Dragons have been to visit the premises. Alongside the capital, we get mentoring and there’s a lot of regular contact with other investments that enables us to discuss our experiences as small, growing businesses,” she says.
Watkyn would, she says, like to start manufacturing goods to help expand the product offering and serve more markets, although Tiny Box already receives around 10 orders a week from overseas. The other area for improvement would be more proactive approach to sales. “To date, we’ve just been dealing with incoming enquiries but we would like to be out there selling,” she says.
And the biggest change since the Dragons’ Den experience? “When we started it was just one room, with a bit of stock. We took it seriously, but the business really didn’t have its own identity other than ours,” says Watkyn. “Now we’ve got people working for us, it has its own identity. It’s as if the baby has grown up.”
BUTTERFLY TECHNOLOGY
Many of those who go into the Den walk away with nothing, but that does not make it a complete waste of time. One such firm is Butterfly Technology who wanted a £75,000 stake in exchange for 15% equity to help develop its Squeeze with Ease tube, designed to reduce the amount of product that is thrown away.
Sue Bell, who set up the firm with husband William and product designer Jonathan Jones, describes facing the Dragons as a daunting, but ultimately great experience.
Bell feels that the firm went in the Den at a stage too early in the development process, but she remains hopeful of converting the experience into a positive outcome given the positive feedback she’s had about the product. “Maybe six months down the road, having been in the Den is the kind of thing that helps in terms of getting the product known and opening some doors,” suggests Bell.
Since the Den, Butterfly has changed its strategy and is looking to give equity to a design firm or toolmaker to help develop the current prototypes for a more polished sample that can be sent to brands and fillers for consideration.
Any regrets about going in? Bell admits that she finds it strange when people recognise her on the street, but says she would recommend it to anybody in a similar situation.
“Take a reality check and ask if you really want the investment and, also, think about the wider consequences. It’s all about capitalising on the experience,” she says.
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