Fruity Faces was launched in June last year by mother-of-two Paige Allen, fed up with wrapping fruit in tea towels so that it would survive the trip to school in a lunchbox.
The product has gone from strength to strength since it was introduced last summer, with the help in the fresh produce industry of main distributor Steve Roberts, at Westminster Produce.
But Fruity Faces is no ordinary business. All profits are split and donated to three charities - African Revival, FARA, a charity for abandoned Romanian children, and Hospice of Hope Romania.
Allen was invited to appear on hit BBC2 show Dragons’ Den last week and accepted with the charities in mind. The programme offers businesses the chance to pitch for investment in return for a share of the venture and the considerable experience of the investors.
But the ‘Dragons’ - multi-millionaire entrepreneurs Richard Farleigh, Duncan Bannatyne, Theo Paphitis, Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones - are notoriously difficult to please. It is not uncommon for unsuspecting candidates to have their pitches torn to shreds on national TV and be made to leave the den with their tail between their legs.
Allen braved the den to pitch a five-per-cent share of the business for a £125,000 investment in order to go global after a successful UK launch. “We reasoned that it would be better to give away a small proportion of the business in exchange for investment and the benefit of their expertise, which would ultimately bring in more money for the charities we donate to,” she says.
“Getting a grilling from five extremely successful business people is hard work - they play their parts well,” she adds. “The dragons are investing in you and your idea so you have to be the right person for them. And you have to be prepared and know your market and your figures.”
Allen put forward a strong case for investment, citing the timing of the product - given the ongoing 5 A DAY drive and mounting concerns over obesity - as well as the popularity of the product since its launch.
The brightly coloured PVC cases enable children to carry fruit to school without ending up with squashed bananas, bruised apples or pulped peaches.
The packs, which are available in four striking designs and are named after African fruit - Fenne, Tunda, Sesy and Mengi - are now a “must-have item” among school children, according to Allen.
Around 75,000 units have been sold to date through schools, online orders, catalogues and distributors and, in a move that will see the product available on high streets across the UK, some 8,500 inflatable fruit cases will trial at 22 Asda superstores from April.
“Fruity Faces is about getting people to eat more fruit and to attach a more positive and fun message to eating 5 A DAY,” Allen says.
The firm has been awarded a licence to use the 5 A DAY logo and the product has been well received by many of the Healthy Schools Coordinators across the UK.
The project also received the Startup Business Awards’ Community Service Impact award in October 2006.
The dragons were uncharacteristically impressed by what they saw and heard. “They had no qualms over the product, especially once they had seen our sales figures and repeat sales,” Allen tells FPJ. “It was a big decision - they had never had a charitable business in the den before. In the end they decided that they could not take money away from a charitable organisation.”
But Allen was in for a surprise when the cameras stopped rolling and Peter Jones offered his help outside the programme. Negotiations are now under way for Fruity Faces to be promoted through his charity, Forgotten Children.
Around 4.5 million people tuned in to watch the show and, according to Allen, business is booming. “We have had a phenomenal response since the programme was aired,” she says.
“We had hundreds of orders by midnight on the day of the show and they have just kept on coming - we have requests coming out of our ears and a lot of people interested in distribution.
“We achieved what we wanted to achieve. I was happy with the programme and I feel that, in the end, the right decision was made morally.”
So what next for Fruity Faces? 2007 will see the business globalise, says Allen, and she has already taken steps to link up with distributors of related products worldwide.
Plans for the product to be licensed so that it will feature well-known names, such as Disney characters or football logos, are underway, and this could give sales a massive boost, Allen says.
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