I was rejected by entire Dragon’s Den panel – but now I make £1million a year after my perseverance paid off

ENTREPRENEUR Katherine Swift was devastated after she was turned down by the entire Dragon’s Den’s panel six years ago.

But fast-forward to now and the former events manager’s business is on track to make £1million this year.

Katherine, 51, from Brighton and Hove, had always had a passion for healthy living and longed to make a career out of it.

But she had no idea where to begin as she was so busy every day organising events, most latterly the Northwest Football Awards.

However, after her mum was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, a series of “hair-raising” events eventually led her to found OMGtea, her own matcha green tea business which has now exploded across the UK.

FINDING THE IDEA

The idea for her business came from a chance meeting with a professor.

The chair of the judging panel for the Northwest Football Awards, Maurice Watkins, mentioned that he was chairing a £5million charity appeal for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

This was a cause that had suddenly become very close to Katherine’s heart, and she felt inclined to offer to get involved.

“It was a hair-raising moment, it just seemed so weird and coincidental,” Katherine said.

“Within a few months I was helping to run the charity appeal.”

That was when she met a professor who was researching the health benefits of antioxidants and amino acids found in matcha tea.

He was studying whether it could potentially help slow down the growth of cancer stem cells in those battling the disease.

Katherine became fixated on studying matcha tea and decided to get some samples from Japan to test with her mum to see if it made them feel healthier.

“My mum and I tried drinking it and it made us feel great, it just gave us a mental and physical boost of energy,” she said.

“I started thinking I loved it so much I wanted to spread the word, and that’s where I got the idea to start my own matcha tea business.”

At first, she started trying to source high quality matcha tea online to figure out the perfect healthy brew.

In 2014, she finally launched her brand OMGTea, which stands for Organic Matcha Green Tea.

“I started on Amazon and then got into running stalls at food festivals and farmer’s markets.

“Sales were slow at first but the feedback was really good, which gave me the confidence to keep pursuing it.”

In 2017, her turnover was around £92,000 with a profit of £48,000.

DRAGON’S DEN DISAPPOINTMENT

In January 2018, after a few years of modest sales in the local area, Katherine was approached by the BBC series Dragon’s Den and offered a spot on the next series, which aired in November that year.

Dragon’s Den is a TV show where start-up entrepreneurs pitch their business idea to a panel of wealthy investors in the hope of getting investment to grow their company.

But while the dragons were all very impressed by Katherine’s sales, none of them could see the UK turning into a nation of matcha tea drinkers.

Dragon Peter Jones said he believed Katherine had done really well for a start-up business in her local area, but couldn’t see the product being adopted in the “mainstream” market.

“I was in there for about an hour and 15 minutes and in front of the dragons for about 45 minutes, and it was so nerve-wracking,” Katherine said.

“While they turned me down, I’m really proud of myself for going on, it was a great personal development opportunity.

“It was just too soon for my business, I think, and they clearly weren’t the right investors for me if they couldn’t see my vision.”

LIFE AFTER TV

For the first few months after appearing on the show, Katherine felt devastated that no one had believed in her business or could see matcha tea becoming more mainstream.

But then it made her more determined than ever to make her dream a reality on her own.

In the end, she invested around £20,000 of her own cash she had saved up over the course of her career in events to get her business off the ground.

“It was a big risk, I didn’t know it was going to pay off, but I did believe in the potential of matcha green tea to grow,” she said.

Then, she found her business was roughly doubling its profit margins year-on-year.

Last year, she said it doubled from around £250,000 to half a million pounds, and this year it’s on track to double from £500,000 to £1million.

The main added income has come from listing her products in an increasing number of retailers, as well as growing her presence on sites like Amazon.

She has now listed her products in some of the UK’s biggest department stores including Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, and it can be found in upmarket supermarkets like Wholefoods and Ocado.

FUTURE PLANS

OMGTea recently received a generous investment from Aiya, a matcha green tea producer in Japan, which Katherine has sourced her products from for years.

Now, Katherine is looking to branch out and get into food service, which means seeing her matcha tea sold at food outlets.

“The demand for matcha tea is steadily growing, you can now get matcha tea in massive coffee shop chains like Starbucks,” Katherine said.

“I wanted to basically bring matcha to the masses and I genuinely believe if everyone drank a cup of matcha every day, the world would be a better place. Now I’m on my way to making that happen.”

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