Entrepreneurs behind Newcastle’s NOVELTEA turn down Dragons’ Den offers

Newcastle-based alcoholic tea brand NOVELTEA turned down a raft of offers on Dragons’ Den over the weekend.

Co-founders Vincent Efferoth and Lukas Passia pitched to the Dragons on Sunday evening’s show – but ended up walking away empty-handed.

The duo served hot and cold tasters of NOVELTEA’s Tale of Earl Grey and Tale of Tangier teas. After a round of questioning, three of the five Dragons tabled investment offers.

Tej Lalvani and Jenny Campbell both separately proposed £80k for a 40% stake in the business, while Touker Suleyman led with an £80k offer for 39%.

But Efferoth and Passia’s strategy before appearing on the BBC Two show was to cap any potential stake at 10%.

Negotiations ensued and the three Dragons joined forces to offer £80k for 30%. But as this was still three times more than what NOVELTEA’s co-founders were comfortable with giving away, they told the Dragons the maximum they could accept was 15% and the negotiations fizzled out.

Vincent said: “It was quite an experience! Lukas and I were happy that we stuck to our guns and didn’t ‘sell out’.

“In our minds, the fact that we received three offers straight off the bat and were able to renegotiate them affirms that NOVELTEA is a strong business with attractive future prospects.”

Lukas commented: “We have strong plans and a lot to be thankful for. We benefit from a well-established retail network and we have successfully raised over £342k through crowdfunding since Dragons’ Den was filmed, which is just phenomenal.

“So we’re actually far from disappointed and look forward to moving onwards and upwards. Prost!”