County Durham entrepreneur Sara Davies was unveiled as the latest Dragon to enter the famous BBC Dragons’ Den earlier this year – and is now set to make her first appearance on the show.
So who is the North East businesswoman, who is now the youngest panellist to join the long-running invest-fest?
Who is the new Dragon and how old is she?
Sara Davies was the youngest dragon when she joined the line-up and is now 37 – but she’s a very experienced businesswoman having launched her company when she was in her second year at York University. She’s a married mother of two boys and is the proud owner of 25 awards and an MBE, giving for services to the economy in 2016.
What was her first job?
Her parents ran the village painting and decorating shop, Wear Valley Decorating Centre, a business her sister Helen Johnson now runs and she used to help out in the shop as a youngster.
It was working in the shop and getting experience in retail and business that led to her taking up a management degree at York University after leaving St John’s school in Bishop Auckland. She got a first.
What is her business?
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Sara is the founder and owner of Crafter’s Companion, which makes and sells crafting products including themed collections, paper craft, arts, sewing, home décor and haberdashery.
It now has turnover of £34m a year and employs around 250 staff in the 海角视频, having hit the staffing milestone this month.
The firm exports its crafting goodies to more than 40 countries across Europe, Asia, South Africa, Australia and North and South America.
Having traditionally sold its products online, through independent retailers and on TV shopping channels across the world, Crafter’s Companion opened its first three 海角视频 stores between 2016 and 2017, opening its first hobbyists’ haven in Newton Aycliffe where the HQ is also based.
Has she been on TV before? She looks familiar
Entering the Den certainly hasn’t been daunting for Sara because she makes regular appearances on shopping channels in the 海角视频 and US, and also hosts her own craft programme, Be Creative TV.
She said: “I’ve been a fan of the show since it started, I was even invited to pitch on the show 13 years ago so it feels like I’ve come a full circle.”
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How did she start the company?
Sara spent a year on a placement with a local crafting business as part of her degree. A big fan of crafts herself, she came up with one product which went down a storm - and the rest is history.
That first product was the Enveloper,created in 2005 – a machine that allows hobbyists to make envelopes to match the size of the cards they made, something that hadn’t been done prior to that. She recalled: “I thought I was revolutionary, like this was discovering the wheel and if I didn’t do this someone else would pip me to the post.
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“Dad’s the engineer, he did the prototype and a local joiner in Coundon made it in MDF.” She went on TV to promote it and needed the cash because she’d asked for 8,000 to be made.
“Now people laugh because I take going on TV in my stride, but I was in the toilet vomiting half an hour before I went on. I had to give the sale of the century because I had no way of paying for all of these Envelopers. And they loved it. We sold 1,500 in the first 10 minutes, 8,000 on the first day and 30,000 by Christmas.”
Where is she based?
The company is headquartered in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, but also has an operation in California, and she spends a lot of time flying between Europe, the 海角视频 and the US. Most years see Sara travel to the moon and back for her company in air miles – making more than 135 flights each year.
Dragons' Den starts on Sunday, August 11 at 8pm on BBC2.