Welcome to Surf Seeds
Questions and Answer with Tim after appearing on Dragon’s Den (Irish)
· Who was the toughest Dragon?
Sarah Newman was without doubt the toughest Dragon she went into competition with the other two dragons and made an offer for the full amount of €100,000 but wanted a reduced shareholding. As soon as she made her decision, she indicated no tolerance in allowing me time to consider her offer. I felt at this stage that she would be a very hard taskmaster and although the potential of working with her and achieving a successful outcome appear good. I felt that it would be absolutely no fun. For me, enjoying the journey is as important as the results.
· Were you nervous?
Walking up the stairs, I was peaceful and calm with a smile on my face, ready to enjoy the experience. As soon as I entered the room. I saw five dragons, and not a friendly face between them. At this stage, I became very nervous and wondered what had I left myself in for. I completed my initial pitch and had immediate support from Sean Gallaher. This gave me confidence, and I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the process.
· How did you prepare?
I have been working on this project for over two years, and had also attended a number of trade shows, where I had to pitch the concept of Surf seeds. In order to get the timing right I did practice pitches to both my family and friends.
· Was it as you expected it to be?
Yes, the set was very similar to the UK programme, and I had watched a number of these on U-tube. What was wonderful was the enthusiasm with which the dragons showed for my product. This was far above my expectations and reaffirmed that Surf Seeds, has great potential.
· Were you surprised by some of the questions?
There were no major surprises in the questions and covered all areas in relation to the product and its development to date.
· Who was most interested in your idea?
Sean kicked off immediately, with interest and had an immediate vision for the product. He made the initial offer of €50,000 for 10% of the company. Bobby joined in and covered the second 10% for another €50,000. At this stage, Sarah showed interest and offered the full €100,000 for 25% of the company. The two other dragons, spoke highly of product, but were not in a position to invest at this time. Overall all the dragons showed an interest in the surf seeds and three offers were received.
· Would you have done anything differently?
I couldn’t possibly see me doing anything different, as it was the perfect result.
· Has entering the den changed your perception of business in any way?
One of the bigger benefits that will occur from entering the den is the business network that surf seeds will be exposed to. This may well exceed the monetary investment that the investors are putting in.
· Would you recommend applying for Dragon’s Den to any other budding entrepreneurs?
I would definitely recommend entrepreneurs to pitch their product/service to the den.
· What does this mean to you personally?
It is a wonderful way to receive recognition publicly for a product that I have worked on for many years.
Press Release
SURF SEEDS —————— MAKING WAVES
Surf Seeds are a brand new Irish healthy snack food product based in Drunshambo Co. Leitrim and Dun Laoighaire Co Dublin. The man behind the product Tim Rooney developed the idea of using sunflower and other seed varieties as a healthy snack food after developing a range of seeded breads for a large supermarket chain. To date Surf Seeds has been awarded a gold medal at the Great Taste Awards, successfully pitched to RTE’s Dragons Den and proved to be a huge hit at the recent International Food Exhibition in London. In addition to this there have been a number or articles in the press trough out Ireland as well as multiple appearances on national radio stations.
Surf Seeds comes in three delicious varieties:
- Original – A mix of sunflower seeds and Belgian chocolate coated sunflower seeds
- Pumpkin Mix – This mix comprises pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, and chocolate
covered sunflower seeds
- Blueberry – This fantastic mix includes wild organic dried Canadian blueberries, all naturally sweetened with nothing added.
Each variety comes in a cool iconic package that is resealable and refillable as well as being sleek enough to make it a highly convenient snacking option when out and about. The packaging was designed by Tim and represents the shape of a surf board and sun flower seed and is being for short listed for design awards throughout Europe.
Each unit has 75g of mix in it. Surf Seeds can be purchased individually for around € 3.00 in-store or in a case of 12 for € 30.00 on-line @surfseeds.com
Our First Award for Great Taste
‘OSCAR FOR DRUMSHANBO FOOD COMPANY’
Surf Seeds wins Great Taste Award
Surf Seeds, an innovative snack food company newly established in the Food Hub, Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim is celebrating after winning a prestigious Great Taste Award. Surf Seeds has been presented with a Gold Star for it’s Sunflower Mix Surf Seeds range of products. Established by Tim Rooney, the Surf Seeds product range of healthy snack foods targets Adults teenagers and children in very appealing packaging.
The Great Taste Awards, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, are regarded as the Oscars of the food industry, as they are the authoritative, independent standard for Britain’s fine food sector. The winning products go through a thorough judging process, successful products earn the right to use the black and gold Great Taste Award logo on their packaging to signify genuine, proven fine food’’.
Tim Rooney has been working on the Surf Seeds concept for many years. He saw a gap in the market for a more trendy but healthy snack product that offered an alternative to nuts, fruit and healthy low fat crisps and cereal bars. Surf Seeds has emerged with the first re-sealable seed container ideal for snacking and uses iconic packaging to deliver a delicious product range of savoury and sweet flavours.
The Food Hub was the ideal location for Tim an experienced chef and product developer. The access to onsite technical and funding expertise and world class facilities made the production set up very straightforward and fast track. Support from Leitrim County Enterprise Board was also very important in starting the business.
Now established in The Food Hub, the company’s products will soon be on the shelves while Pallas Foods, Independent Irish Health Foods and Donegal Whole foods have agreed to wholesale Surf Seeds.
Tim Rooney is delighted with the progress: “We are very excited about winning a Great Taste Award as it endorses the superior quality and high standard of the Surf Seeds product range. It is great news for a Leitrim company. We are only just beginning!.
OUR PLAN or why we do what we do.
Product Summary
“At Sony we assume that all products of our competitors have basically the same technology, price, performance and features. Design is the only thing that differentiates one product from another in the marketplace.”
Norio Ohga (SONY)
SURF SEEDS, An Image conscious cool healthy snack food range.
Uniqueness
Iconic Package
First Resalable Seed Container
First to use Chocolate Coated and Natural seeds in a mix.
The concept of the surf seed project is to create iconic packaging, and sell healthy whole food products with no additives. The name and branding is to associate itself with surfing, youth, outdoor, fun, health and fitness.
The initial goal of the project is to create the packaging and start trading in the Irish market and prove we have a viable product.
The second stage would be to bring product to the far bigger market in the UK.
And finally to find international trade partners to market and sell our product worldwide.
Markets
In Ireland
The snack food market is worth over €400 million in Ireland
Annual Growth figures of up to 20% are achievable.
New entrants e.g. popcorn has achieved a 7% position
In the USA
All packaged snack food $61 billion
Crisps and crunchy snacks are worth $6 billion
Cereal bar is $838 million
Cereal bars are the fastest growing category up 168%
State and federal laws along with public policy developments will help the healthy snack food market to grow.
Over the past 10 years there has been a gradual shift away from unhealthy snack food and towards a healthier product. The first people to grab hold of this market were the large cereal producers who have now gained a foothold on the market through health food bars. Joining this growing demand are public policy developments on what can be sold to children. The vending machines and shops within schools have now to provide alternative snacks, with no sugar no salt and no additives. At the moment there are very few products which fit this description none of which are cool
Trends
Some of the trends listed for the marketplace in 2007 in Euromonitor
· Demand for higher quality products;
· Convenient and hygienic;
· Attractive packaging;
· Air tight resalable containers;
· Longer shelf life;
Target Market
· Fun active cooler humans from 8 to 48.
· Responsible Mum’s of young children.
· All responsible for educational food outlets.
· All involved in gym or spa vending machines.
Target Sales
1% of snack food sales in Ireland = € 4,000,000 p.a. over 5 years.
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Best wishes
Tim