HORLAT Surviva Jak - Emergency survival Jacket/Blanket

Product Information

Through innovative thinking and the high quality of UK manufacture we aim to offer the best and most effective outdoor survival products available today. We are always keen to work with organisations to find the right solutions to meet their requirements and make our products the best possible. Alex and Letitia came to us with a great, innovative product and we’ve helped them with things like building their business plan and creating a marketing and sales strategy.”

Ms Valentine said: “Deborah’s input has been excellent. She is very much hands on and when she made her offer for 45% of the company she said that she needed the extra 10% so she could take more of a hands-on approach – she’s going to be very much involved.Despite a tough presentation, the pair persuaded one of the Dragons, Deborah Meaden, to pledge a 45% stake in the business - an offer they had few qualms in accepting. The pair had previously received support from Venture Wales, having signed on to the Graduate Start-Up Support Programme funded by the Assembly Government, and also from The Prince’s Trust Enterprise Programme, support which they said was “invaluable”. Clearly the two are not going to risk arguing any further and they readily accept her offer. The deal done in the Den: They are a lot like they appear on the television, very much as I expected, but that didn’t make it any easier. I spent much of the pitch trying not to cry – I had got so upset that I felt like I was going to burst into tears all the way through. Most of the time I was keeping my mouth shut just to keep it together. We were both excited and terrified before we went on and it was a very tough experience to go through. I was very upset because Theo and Duncan in particular were very harsh with their comments – they were so mean to us. Deborah actually stepped in and said that they were taking it too far,” Ms Valentine said.

Ms Valentine said: “I was soaked to the skin as it had been raining for four hours solidly and on the downhill section of the mountain I was so cold that I could barely think and had gone past the point of shaking, I was in a really bad way.” In return, the dragon has taken a 45% stake in the business after the pair were subjected to a gruelling 90-minute grilling from Ms Meaden and the four other dragons – with Theo Paphitis and Duncan Bannatyne describing their pitch as the “worst they had ever heard.” Alex mentions that they're in talks with a leading retailer and that if they can introudce more products and have a line they can get into stores.Those figures also rely on Letitia and Alex bringing out new products in the future. Why should Duncan invest? Alex's nerves have started showing him up and he has trouble answering. Deborah, however, seems to be fighting with herself. Certainly their business has problems but there is the germ of a good idea here. We work hard to minimise our negative impact on the environment, reusing our waste and aiming to become a zero to landfill company. Peter Jones, meanwhile, is more than suprised at their other statistics. Alex and Letitia gave the size of their target market at 38 million. That's over 65% of the UK population. You are clearly passionate about your product but you are completely dysfunctional when it comes to understanding how to launch a business.