Rob Shaw and his wife Rachel asked the Dragons for £80,000 in return for a 20% stake in the company which produces hard-boiled eggs with a brightly-coloured preservative coating.
Shaw took a chicken, called Pepper, on the TV show in a bid to impress the Dragons and insisted that he “didn’t crack at all” despite coming under fire.
“We have not been deterred by the Dragons’ response,” he said after the programme was aired on Sunday (January 10).
One of nature’s superfoods
Shaw argued that eggs are among nature’s superfoods and one of the hottest food trends for health-conscious consumers who have high protein and low carbohydrate diets.
“We will continue to target the savoury snacks market with the brand since the initial response from both consumers and retailers has been so positive,” he said.
During the TV programme, Dragon and restaurant entrepreneurSarah Willingham criticised the colour of the eggs and said she wanted buy an egg as a fresh product, not a brightly-coloured one.
“An egg is a pretty magical food product that a lot of people love but I think that you are taking away the magic,” Willingham said.
‘It looks like a plastic egg’
Investor Deborah Meaden agreed with her and added: “It looks like a plastic egg. All the wonderful, wonderful things about eggs, this isn’t. You’ve taken it away.”
Online greeting card business founder Nick Jenkins acknowledged that there was a market for ready-to-eat eggs amid the growing demand for healthy convenience food.
“But I also think the business is not in the idea because this is quite a simple idea. The business is the distribution side and that’s the bit that you don’t have,” he said.
Shaw said similar products were sold across Europe and sale figures showed that about 1.5M unshelled boiled eggs were sold a day in Germany.
Investor Peter Jones claimed that Shaw had not researched his target market after the entrepreneur was unable give the further details such as the price point in Germany.
“You crack me up. Rob, this really isn’t a business. You don’t have substance to come in here and try to sell me a coloured egg at five times the price,” he said.
Meanwhile, another Dragon Touker Suleyman raised concerns over the cash flow of the business, adding: “Cash is king.”
Shaw, who comes from a farming family and has worked in agriculture, said the eggs stay fresh for a month due to the natural preservative coating.
Dragons’ Den - who they have backed and sacked
- Husband and wife team get £50,000 investment for Korean sauce firm Yogiyo
- Business partners fail in bid for investment in gluten-free range Rule of Crumb
- John Tague gets £125,000 investment for Tag crisps business
- Secret Sausages, Vegetables in Disguise, fails to gain investment
