Wrap It Up! fails to fire up the Dragons' Den
The founders of fast-food chain Wrap It Up! went home empty-handed after their appearance on BBC TV show Dragons' Den last night (Sunday).
Tayub Mushtaq and his business partner, Afnan Bashir, gave a confident pitch to the panel of five Dragons, which included stalwarts Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden as well as Kelly Hoppen and Piers Linney.
Wrap it Up! has 11 sites across London, and the pair asked the Dragons to support their business expansion plans with an investment of £500,000 for an 11% stake in the company.
But there was a general agreement from the panel that Mushtaq and Bashir had priced themselves out of the running, with their valuation of the business scuppering their chance of investment.
After four of the Dragons opted out, Jones was the last chance for investment but he told the pair: "You should have come in at a realistic level to get the one person to turn this into something special. I'm out."
As they left the Den, Bashir commented: "You've got to believe in the brand and be passionate about the business and the Dragons didn't come with that passion."
Mushtaq, a former stockbroker for a boutique investment bank in the City, added: "Given the market we're in, I think we were quite realistic on valuations. They didn't understand the business as we'd have liked them to."
