Last night the garden room industry came under scrutiny when O-Pod entered the Dragons Den!
Despite a confident pitch O-Pod, designers of a unique round garden room met with a mixed reception from the panel of high profile investors, Peter Jones described the garden room variously as an expensive beehive and a water tank and declared himself ‘out’ early on, Deborah Meaden liked the price point of the O-Pod and clearly understood the market stating that many people were looking for garden rooms with large expanses of glass to connect the indoor and outdoor space, Hilary Devey explained that she had a garden room but was obviously in the size over substance camp and felt she could get more building for less money so she too declared herself ‘out’
So, did O-Pod get investment, well yes, Theo Paphitis liked the product and made an offer of the full £75,000 for 45% of the business, after some negotiation he dropped to 40% with a further drop to 30% if 50% of his investment is repaid in 12 months.
O-Pod have developed a niche for themselves in the garden room market and it will be very interesting to watch how they grow with the backing of Theo. You could say that an O-Pod is a Dragons Den!
If you would like more information visit the O-Pod website. For information on Dragons Den visit the BBC website
