The Canned Wine Group Has been named the winner of the inaugural Bath Dragons competition.
In a tough final at The Apex Hotel in central Bath, the event – a joint initiative by Richardson Swift, Mogers Drewett, South West Business Finance, and The Business Exchange - saw four finalists battling for the grand prize of a business support package worth over £20k.
The founders of four local businesses: Jim Hughes of Untamed, Ross Austen of Hanora Health, Michael Kerstein of Easyphones and of course Ben Franks from Canned Wine Group, had just four minutes each to pitch their ideas to the Dragons in front of a packed audience.
The Dragons - Debbie Boulton, Managing Director, Richardson Swift; Tom Webb, Corporate and Commercial Partner at Moger Drewett; Dan Webb, Co-Founder of South West Business Finance; and Anita Jaynes, Founder of The Business Exchange – then had the tough job of grilling the business owners on their strategies and finances.
In a tight fought culmination to the competition, which was launched in February, the audience joined the voting process via a live poll to help decide the ultimate winner.
Canned Wine Group co-founder Ben Franks with the Bath Dragons Trophy
The Projects
The Canned Wine Group pipped the post with an entry that focused on plans to diversify from its current offering of supplying a range of wines in cans to the retail and hospitality industry, to develop its ‘Copper Crew’ range of wine in kegs.
During his pitch, Ben Franks shared the Group’s ambition is to roll-out wine on tap into venues across the UK, becoming the single serve house wine nationwide.
Ben explained that the Copper Crew project would ensure customers could get quality wine by the glass as well as cutting down on the huge amount of wine wasted by the hospitality industry each year.
“The current wastage challenge across the hospitality industry is significant. 650 million bottles of wine are wasted every year, meaning the cost of selling wine by the glass is significantly high. Canned Wine Group’s solution increases flexibility around the ‘by the glass’ serve through delivering 20 litre KeyKegs, each equivalent to 26 bottles of wine. KeyKegs reduce packaging, storage requirements and emissions and reduces the number of shipments required for the same volume of wine. Each KeyKeg has a guaranteed shelf life of six weeks, minimising liquid waste to close to zero,” he added.
Ben was modest about the win, he said, “It’s fantastic to be in a room with so many other great Bath businesses. There’s a lot that goes on in the South West. So many look to London for startups. Canned Wine Group co-founder Simon Rollings and I love the city, and we wouldn’t go anywhere else. The more you can get out and support Bath businesses the better, so here’s to Bath!”
The other finalists were chosen from dozens of entries. Michael Kerstein is the managing director and founder, Easyphones, a company which supplies phones with software designed to be used by older people and those who struggle with complicated smartphone technology.
Jim Hughes, Founder of Untamed, pitched his Untamed Off Grid project, which offers a subscription-based off-grid space where executives and their teams can connect and work in an inspirational environment. Ross Austen, pitched plans to expand his kombucha business, Hanora Health.
To find out more about Bath Dragons winner Canned Wine Group visit: www.cannedwine.group And to find out more about the finalists go to: www.easyphones.co.uk http://www.becomeuntamed.com and www.hanorahealth.co.uk
The competition, which is due to become a regular event for the Bath business community, was also supported by business leaders and enterprise specialists from Invest In B&nes, Bath BID, and Bath Spa University Business School, Bath University School of Management and the West of England Combined Authority, among others.
Bath Dragons is an initiative set up and funded by accountants and tax advisers Richardson Swift, law firm Mogers Drewett, business finance experts SWBF and TBE. The companies will each provide services worth up to £5,000 to the winner. How and which services these include will be decided on in collaboration with the winner.
Pictures by Jessie Myers, Soul Media. @jessiemyersphoto at @soulmediauk
