KEY POINTS:
Not one of the business ventures multimillionaire Sir Bob Jones offered to invest in on the hit television show Dragons' Den has received any money.
The property tycoon offered to put a total of $1 million into five different business pitches on the high rating TVNZ show last
year.
But the deals later fell through, either because they failed to meet due diligence criteria or the would-be entrepreneur pulled out.
Sir Bob was one of the show's five 'dragons' - with media mogul Barry Colman, internet service provider Annette Presley, reality TV queen Julie Christie and aviation and property investor Paul Webb - to whom business hopefuls pitched their ideas, offering shares in return for capital and expertise to start their ventures.
No agreement made on Dragons' Den is legally binding. Investors can pull out if the business propositions don't measure up.
Annette Presley offered to put $275,000 into two ideas. Both failed to get off the ground - Allstar Cheerleading found another investor, and Presley later decided against investing in fashion label Ink'd.
Sir Bob and Presley said what was was aired on screen was different to what occured on set. Presley said: "It's not a reality TV show, it's an entertainment show. Television is all about ratings.
"Without being rude, some of them would be laughed out of an investment banker's office."
Sir Bob, an icon of New Zealand business, said he spent hours investigating each business proposal but they either failed to meet the criteria, or in some cases the successful applicants had pulled out.
"What annoyed me was to subsequently see the show, and they say: 'How do you feel Fred, you've just won $200,000?' Well, they hadn't. They knew it was subject to due diligence," he said. "You cannot sit there for 20 minutes and make these contracts - that's why they're subject to due diligence."
And Sir Bob vowed to not appear on the show again - "It was a really bad three weeks for me, dreadful".
But National Business Review publisher Barry Colman, who agreed to spend around $725,000, said he thought Sir Bob had let the hopeful entrepreneurs down.
Colman made good on all but one deal, after he parted amicably with Hello Dolly founder Angela Beer. "You are morally obliged to have a look at it properly. There was one deal which didn't happen but all the rest were bloody great." Colman believed he could make a judgement call about people and their business from a short meeting. "I didn't get involved in anything that I didn't think would work.
"If they can't impress you in 20 minutes, then they never will. Bob's right, you have a look at it closely, and I can't explain his actions - but I think he let those people down."
The budding entrepreneurs were understandably disappointed about Sir Bob backing down from the on-screen deals. But they say there are "no hard feelings".
Karaka couple Marc and Bobbie Fisk were ecstatic when the businessman offered to invest $100,000 for a 35 per cent share in their product, a split duvet that solves the problem of one partner being too hot and the other too cold in bed.
After several "positive" meetings with Sir Bob and his business associate Greg Loveridge in November, by December the couple received a letter from Loveridge saying Sir Bob no longer wanted to invest as they had misgivings about the couple's debts.
When Marc Fisk protested that he felt his reputation was on the line, as he and Sir Bob had publicly stated they would do business together, Sir Bob replied personally on January 11. "My reputation is most certainly not on the line, indeed I doubt if a single soul gives a damn," he told the Fisks.
"The [Dragon's Den] format may make interesting television but ultimately it is nonsense as capital is always readily available for sound propositions."
The Fisks had sold their Pukekohe home to bankroll the initial batch of the duvets, which were sold in Harvey Norman stores but, since appearing on the show, their business has slowed because they have no money for marketing.
"We don't want to get into a slanging match with Sir Bob, he was always pleasant to deal with. But we just feel disappointed and let down," Bobbie Fisk says.
"People told us we'd never get the money and now I feel a right idiot, because they were right."
Four other entrepreneurs who thought they had struck a deal with Sir Bob say they are also disappointed, but understand the "nature" of reality television. Masterton men Mark and Murray Jones were looking for a $250,000 investment in a 30 per cent stake in their business, to market a range of "Holdm" plastic clips that hold plants to stakes.
Sir Bob said the duo failed to send him more detailed business plans, and he wrote to them ending any potential partnership. Mark Jones said: "We got over it because we knew the show was entertainment and that the handshake was only part of it. We were over the moon with the profile."
West Auckland woman Ella Henry made such an impression on the Sir Bob, 66, that he proposed marriage to her on the show.
Her permeable paving company, which ensures rainwater goes into the soil, had attracted interest from local councils but, when contract tenders fell through, so did Sir Bob's final approval. "Our experiences with him were extremely positive and we are clear about the reasons why he didn't invest," Henry says.
Christie, whose Eyeworks Touchdown company produces the show, was in discussions with TVNZ for a second season of Dragons' Den - but she would not appear in the show again. She said the show's audience was not misled into believing something which wasn't real.
"In most of the deals, by far the vast majority of them have gone through. I don't know how it could be more clear on television, other than obviously stating this is subject to due diligence, which Bob always did," she said.
If deals fell through, Christie said it was probably because the entrepreneur had planned to use the money to pay off debt or had provided inaccurate information.
Bob Jones: I did my best for Den entrepeneurs
Your article (A Den Deal? Forget It, February 11) clearly implies, contrary to both the facts and the information given to your newspaper, that I am not a man of my word and rejected all of the circa $1 million of proposals I conditionally put my hand up for on the Dragons' Den show.
In fact, we rejected only one, that being the Fisks' as, for excellent reasons I will not publicly outline, my Auckland office manager, Greg Loveridge, after several meetings with the Fisks, was not prepared to entertain a partnership with them.
As your newspaper was told, far from walking away, my staff and I invested an enormous amount of time investigating all proposals.
In respect of the "Holdm" vineyard clip we were unable to get any detailed proposals from the two Jones brothers, despite several letters over a period of months so we made our own extensive enquiries.
These revealed a warehouse in Wellington filled with an identical product that could not even be given away despite three years' extensive marketing efforts.
We discovered that a vastly superior new mechanical device now achieved the vine clipping function cheaper and quicker than manually applied clips.
Our last letter to the Jones brothers asked why, given that they were both farm agents in two of our country's top wine districts, Hawke's Bay and the Wairarapa, they had been unable to sell the clips to vineyards, was never answered, so we left it at that.
We were happy to proceed with Ella Henry and her husband Hone whom we liked immensely.
They have a great product with a serious difficulty, specifically production costs.
Nevertheless, we had suggestions to possibly overcome this but they, not us, pulled stumps and cancelled a planned dinner date to discuss these, after I had flown to Auckland for that purpose.
Your newspaper was fully aware of this.
Plainly it spoiled the tone of the article but that doesn't excuse your newspaper's disgraceful failure to recount the iced tea proposal with Jasmin Pat with which your writer was fully familiar.
Through contacts, we arranged a meeting in our Auckland office for Jasmin, attended by myself and our Wellington solicitor, with the manager of the country's largest tea distributors, a professional tea taster and a tea marketing manager plus two of our staff.
The tea experts were most helpful and arising out of that meeting it became clear that the sum Jasmine sought would be inadequate as some hundreds of thousands of dollars would be needed for promotion.
As a result we offered Jasmin free office and support facilities and whatever money was required, interest free.
If after two years it hadn't worked out we said we would write off the debt.
It doesn't get much better than that, namely unlimited money - free.
Despite that, Jasmine, whom we also liked enormously, for unspecified reasons, decided not to pursue the matter.
Subsequently, she wrote to me at Christmas thanking me for all of our trouble and help and enclosed a very nice Christmas gift.
Your newspaper knew all of this so how do you reconcile that with your heading? You quote fellow Dragon Barry Colman implying my behaviour was immoral and that I let people down.
How does he know, being totally ignorant as he is of the details outlined above? In that respect, it is noteworthy that Mr Colman did not proceed with the only significant proposition he put his hand up for, as was also the case with many of my fellow Dragons' conditional commitments, doubtless for good reasons, and after deeper enquiry.
Sir Robert Jones, Wellington
Editor's note: In the light of the above, the Herald on Sunday accepts that the online heading on last week's article was inappropriate and apologises to Sir Robert for any adverse impressions it may have left with readers.
