365 drills time in the Dragons Den (yes THE den)

[Fred]

Where do you purchase your drills? Are they from India, or from the UK? Just curious!

 

[Deleted member 1779]

I know you will be shocked (and probably wont believe me!) but we do everything here in the UK.

Although I run (and own) 365drills I have close contacts with a number of quality UK companies and together we are able to take on - and beat - India, China, Taiwan and others on everything except labour costs.

In India labour is 50p an hour. In the UK its ten times that.

But as a team we all add value in spead of delivery, elegance in design, patent filing, quality and true UK engineering skills. Its funny because we all met the other day and one thing we think has happened in the UK is that as survivors we all had to get smart very quickly. Only the best survive.

You might be suprised to know we are begining to sell goods back to China - and that is a real feather in the cap for UK manufacturing.

Also dont believe that everything is cheap to produce abroad. What's leveled the playing field in the last few years is they still have to buy the same hi tec production equipment as us. Still have to pay for tooling. Have to use expensive energy to produce. Have to buy expensive raw materials. And pay a lot fuel for delivery...

Its now so expensive to buy the raw materials, to produce and ship the stuff and that adds the true cost. A lot of automation has reduced the numbers of 50p per hour employees. Its great news for the UK because we are all fighting tooth and nail to keep jobs, money and expertise here.

Also remember if you have your own good idea for solutions to a problem you might come up against in your daily working life then you can contact me in confidence and we can put a package together for you from patent filing to production. This is a sophisticated operation - we are not talking about fred and bob in the back garden writing the idea on a *** packet.

We have access to millions of pounds of UK plant and machinery plus CAD design and expertise.

Just to give you an idea of what I am talking about take a look at who is in the UK doing serious damage to foreign production - here are some great contacts.

G M Tools - Can you spot the similarities in site design to 365drills....

Metromold - Injection moulding of any plastic components up in Newcastle

Fulfilment House - Order production "kitting" and dispatch down South in Dorset

Richard & Phillippa Hazell of 365drills with Andy & Lisa Goodman at an award ceromony for UK manufacturing.

OK I am banging the drum for the UK but all the guys above including me are serious and passionate about keeping manufacturing skills alive here.

"The Sunday Sermon is over..." LOL :lol:

 

[nezbian]

Well im glad people are still keeping production in england coz without fellas like you this country would be down the pan.Sounds like an excellent product to me mate.Keep up the stirling work!!!

 

[sWe]

Sorry to hear about you not getting onto TV. You seem industrious enough though, so it'll work out in the end for you...

Happy to hear that you're keeping production close to the market. Have you considered the environment angle when marketing it? Surely manufacturing the product close to it's intended market has less impact on the environment when it comes to (especially) transports than it would have if it was made on the other side of the globe? I'm also quite certain that you brits use methods less harmful to the environment in your production processes than, say, the Chinese.

You could also push the patriot angle on the packaging on the items going into stores. "Made in Great Britain" or something I mean, I know I am willing to pay a slight premium for a locally made item over a foreign made product of comparable quality.

Just a thought.

 

[penno]

You did actually get on TV, not full interview but a clip when they show various ideas, i made a post on here ages ago about seeing 365 on Dragons den.

 

[Deleted member 1779]

Yes thats very true. In fact we have appeared on dragons den in three of the nine episodes in what the BBC call a "montage". The montage is a short 2 second burst of clips featuring a range of products and pitches that were presented.

But of course unless people actually know us or our product then its very difficult to spot (so well done on your observation skills...!)

By coincidence this week we are at an trade only exhibition next to Nova Flow who make a device to prevent baths from flooding. They were on the Den so we have been swapping horror stories.

From their experience (they turned down investment but their pitch was fully broadcast) they say that its their own work and not the TV stuff that sells products. Totally agree and so I am out there pounding the ground. PS: Thanks to all forum members who dropped by to see us at KBB. More about that in a seperate post.

 

[brian c]

tell the girls we were asking for them m8

 

[stacksoftiles]

At the time of this post, I do not stock ANY drill bits of any kind. I would be interested in maybe having a look at the product. Tile rite keep pestering us to buy their drill bits off them, but my 6 years expeirience selling them when I was with Tiles R Us convinced me otherwise. But yeah, drop me a line.

 

[wivers]

Gutted for ya m8.

Bloody Media. Want me to pay the head of bbc a visit?

 

[Deleted member 1779]

Ha! yes revenge time.... Actually if you want to get anyone for me - Get Duncan_Bannatyne!

Of all 5 Dragons BANNATYNE gave me the worst grief. TWO HOURS of it. His gripe was the "Product is boring..." reference to it being a drill and "Oche Eye Ya pitch was borin tu"

.......GIT !

In contrast Deborah and Peter was thumbs up. So no need to do any damage to them.

As I said in the posts above DM has been very helpful after the show!

 

[Deleted member 1779]

Well its now summer of 2008 and a whole year since we filmed for series five. And on screens right now is series 6 for the next eight weeks of this summer.

I've managed to park my disappointment at not being broadcast and can not only move on - but can actually sit and watch the new series without becoming too moany!

Today's a landmark day because its my 40th Birthday so in many ways a life turning point. At least on the very last day of my 30's I was able to sit and watch DD comfortable in the knowledge that I have "moved on".

Good luck to the new lot who have come up with ideas such as a pillow that sticks on a window, a bed sheet with a barrier in the middle to stop your partner coming over and a pop group....

 

[BuyBrandTools]

Happy Birthday Richard!

 

[CLAYS TILES]

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[faithhealer]

Stuff the Den. happy birthday Richard and upwards and onwards

 

[CJ]

Dickie