'Dragons' Den rejected our 'risky' ice cream brand - it then tripled in value'
Brothers Charlie and Harry Thuillier knew they were onto something when they came up with the idea of creating an indulgent treat that wasn't bad for the waistband.
They had so much faith in their low calorie ice cream product that they went on BBC's Dragon's Den to ask them to make an investment – which they all turned down.
This is something the dragons no doubt regret now, as the Oppo Brothers ice cream brand went on to triple in value and is now sold in 9,000 stores across most of Western Europe and some parts of the Middle East.
Speaking to The Mirror, Harry said that they came up with the idea when he and his brother Charlie travelled to Brazil to go windsurfing in July 2011.
Charlie and Harry went on Dragon's Den, but were turned down (OPPO Brothers)They were attempting to break a world record for the longest distance travelled by kite on land, with an aim for 1,000km.
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Harry added: "We ran out of food for a couple of days. It's a really tropical place so we foraged coconuts and that sort of thing.
"I'm not going to say that we were starving or anything. Charlie lost about a stone. I didn't lose any weight at all, but we did run and and were thinking about food.
"We were thinking about why food has to be either a piece of cake or a boiled egg? Why does it have to be really indulgent and not really good for you, or not so indulgent, and good for you.
"What's the reason all these typically indulgent foods aren't really good for your waistline? We realised we could work quite well together because we'd been through quite tough conditions and we've got different skills."
The brothers thought they'd work well together because of the hard times they had been through (OPPO)Back home, Charlie took the huge risk of quitting his job and starting to create "the most indulgent thing you could have, which was ice cream".
Harry added: "It's the combination of fat and sugar that makes ice cream taste great and could we reduce the amount of fat and sugar?
"Could we replace it with natural ingredients that would have the similar taste and texture but not have the same impact on your calories, and sugar and fat intake."
Charlie worked on over 1,000 recipes while sleeping on Harry's sofa in Brixton, South London. At one point Charlie only had £1.05 left in the bank after spending the remainder of his money on several thousand pounds worth of ice cream.
The mixture was too thick, blowing a valve at the factory they were working with, and it all ended up on the floor.
Luckily, Charlie then found out about a business grant competition with Santander and the University of York, and they were delighted to win a £2,000 grant, which enabled them to do another trial which was successful.
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The brothers are incredibly proud of their product (OPPO Brothers)With a product they were proud of and a stroke of luck, Harry and Charlie managed to convince Waitrose into letting them speak with one of their buyers.
Harry added: "It was kind of bluffing all the way through, but we did manage to speak to them and get a meeting. They tasted the ice cream and it wasn't that great but it was definitely something. There was a market for this so we worked on it."
One of the big turning points came when they decided to go on Dragon's Den, after turning down BBC researchers "four or five times".
Harry said: "We said no because we had other funding lined up. They asked what we were spending our time doing, and we said marketing and trying to tell more people that ice cream can be healthy.
"They said there's four million viewers on Dragon's Den, so why don't you go on."
The entrepreneur's impression of the show is that it's very much a "reality" type show.
They went on Dragons' Den, but were rejected (OPPO)Harry explained further: "The way that they do it is that they put you in a green room for most of the day and don't really say when you'll be called out to pitch.
"They give you a few minute's notice, so you're just there sweating and rehearsing lines and trying not to fudge anything or freeze.
"And then they suddenly say 'right, you're in' and you've barely got time to go to the loo. You end up standing in a fake lift, press the button, and you don't know when it's going to open. I think they wait for you to give a nervous smile to show on the TV."
They asked for a £60,000 investment for a 7 per cent share of the business.
Harry remembers that Touker Suleyman said they "looked like a pair of estate agents" because they came dressed in smart suits, when in retrospect he admits they "should have put on our Oppo branded jumpers or something a bit more ice creamy".
In the end the Dragon's didn't want to invest. Harry said: "They said they really liked the product, said it tasted great but it was just too much of a risk. They just get hung up on the numbers, saying you can’t grow that much that fast.
Oppo Brothers low calorie ice cream has been a huge success (OPPO Brothers)"In the end they just said it’s too much of a risk as Deborah Meadon had actually invested in an ice cream company before and they aren't around anymore. She said I'm out because of that. For the others it was just too high a risk."
In the episode, the feedback about the product was largely positive, although Dragon Sarah Willingham highlighted concerns about the aftertaste, which was a "deal breaker".
Harry said at the time they were "hoping people wouldn't make something of that, because it was such a throwaway comment," and that "we've never heard it before or since".
He added: "Obviously any feedback you get is valuable and we aren't arrogant enough to say we won't listen to it. We do look into it.
"There's always something you can do better. There's no doubt about it, we've improved our product since. We've won several Great Taste Awards."
After the show aired, Oppo ice cream went on to triple their value - and have no regrets about going on the show.
Harry said: "What it did do was triple our sales overnight. It was February, not even ice cream season.
"It really gave us a great boost of awareness and people were buying us in Waitrose. I think we were the sixth most searched for term on Google UK for a short period of time after it aired which was very positive."
Their brand tripled in value after going on TV (OPPO)Harry added: "I don’t regret going on there at all. I think it's the most nervous I've ever been but it was worth it. It was a good experience, but it's definitely a show that is packaged for entertainment above actual business.
"We got massive amounts of exposure. Don't get me wrong, it would have been great to get an offer. But we're still here, many years later and have grown a lot."
The blow wasn't too big, as at that time they had already secured some funding by handing out free ice cream at a café under the one-bedroom flat Charlie had moved to, because they had too much.
Harry said: "We ended up giving it to the wife of someone who founded Seedrs, the crowdfunding company, and she said 'my husband likes ice cream as well, so have a chat with him'. That's what introduced us to crowdfunding."
At this point Waitrose had committed to selling their product in 117 stores so they quickly needed to raise money for the ice cream and packaging.
They managed to crowdfund their company at the very start (OPPO)Harry added: "We actually broke a record for the fastest food and drink company to reach equity crowdfunding target in 2015, which was £100 in about one minute.
"We went above our target in the end, raising £300k. So we had what we needed. We did another round a year later and Andy Murray invested as well which was great because he's an ice cream fan and healthy."
The owners of Capri-Sun eventually bought out all the crowdfunded shareholders, and now they are the majority shareholders of the business.
So what's next for Oppo Brothers? Harry said: "We're working on a future where indulgence can be healthy. There's not really a need for food manufacturers to be putting huge amounts of sugar and fats into products. We're creating products that are 'better for health, better for planet' and there’s a big market within that."
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