User talk:Amersn

Dragons Den Ireland
Dragons Den Ireland Dargons Den Ireland is a series of reality television porgrammes on RTE featuring entrepreneurs from all over Ireland who by pitching their business plans are hoping to obtain an investment from one of the "dragons".The "dragons" consist of a panel of five irish venture capitilists.

Dragons
Niall O'Farrell, Is one of Ireland's most successful entrepreneurs. Owner of Ireland's premier suit hire chain, Blacktie, Niall is also property developer, luxury shirt retailer and food and beverage distributer Niall never considered himself the 'University type', in fact he couldn't wait to leave school and throw the books away. He intended to follow his father, Robert, into his estate agency in Ranelagh. However a downturn in the property market led him to seek other opportunities, and he found himself working in menswear.

Niall earned his stripes at Frewen & Aylward, one of the last old-school tailoring houses in Dublin. Starting in hosiery, he was only allowed to sell socks at the beginning, but he quickly impressed his boss and mentor Fonsie O'Byrne and was brought into shirting and then tailoring.

Niall was keen to earn more money and was quick to spot a niche in the market. He realized that suit-hire instead of being a branch of a tailoring house, could be a business all on its own. He had £2,000 saved from part-time jobs and availed of an enterprise scheme which gave him a grant of £30 a week for six months and a small government-guaranteed loan. He rented a room from his father over the estate agency for £20 a week and from there he started the business with 17 suits.

His first week's turnover was £32.50, for one suit rental of £15 and the sale of one shirt for £17.50. The following week Niall only made £15 for one suit rental and in the third week he made nothing at all. However things did improve with the help of an ingenious marketing ploy - presenting 'Blacktie' to the Irish public as if it was a UK brand arriving over - he was soon opening shops all over the country. He built the company to 17 shops nationwide and a multi-million-euro turnover.

Along with running his retail business, including Jermyn Street Shirts in Picadilly, Niall has been building his property portfolio since the age of 22. He has many landmark buildings in London and Ireland. His latest venture is a drinks and snack food business called Simply Direct.

Niall also enjoys sports, and has a love for skiing and sailing. His big love though is horse racing, he's had three runners in Cheltenham and was in the winners enclosure twice. Niall is in demand as a speaker at conferences about business and is outspoken in his support for the reintroduction of government-backed training schemes.

Gavin Duffy Gavin was reared in the hospitality and retail business with his family running pubs, restaurants and shops in Naas, Dun Laoghaire and Drogheda.

Though he was born on a farm outside Naas, Co Kildare, he considers Drogheda, Co Louth as his home town. He now resides, with his wife Orlaith and four children, about five miles outside Drogheda.

By 18 he had set up a local radio station employing 20 people. In 1989 he set up the country's first licensed provincial local radio station, LMFM, after working for some years in RTE presenting various programmes including Ireland's first television business programme, "Marketplace".

In 2004, LMFM was sold to UTV for €11 million. In 1992 he founded his Media Consultancy business Dorland which owns www.mediatraining.ie. Dorland is the leading consultancy helping Senior Executives to communicate their business messages internally and externally.

He also successfully invested in a number of companies and start ups and remains part owner of the HRM Group of Companies, one Ireland's biggest players in recruitment.

Sarah Newman Sarah is a dot com millionaire and Ireland's only female dragon.

Sarah left school at 16 with very few formal qualifications and went on to develop a multi-million euro business with Needaroom.com. She moved from her native Essex to Ireland in 1994 and immediately noticed a niche in the hotel market. She realised that most travel agents did not carry a huge range of hotels and most were tied up in package deals. After almost a decade working in the travel industry, Sarah had access to 25,000 hotels worldwide and could offer savings of between 40 and 50 per cent.

She contacted a fledgling airline called Ryanair and convinced them to let her use a desk in their call centre. She sat at that desk six days a week, from 8am to 8pm where she offered hotels to Ryanair customers at massively discounted rates, at the same time running an office from Blackrock dealing with Travel Agents. The hard slog paid off when Sarah negotiated a long term contract with Ryanair based on future hotel reservations. Sales grew at a phenomenal rate, and the company went from a staff of one to 95 people within 10 years and sales of €100 million.

The eventual sale of needahotel.com brought Sarah notoriety for being one of the most successful business women in Ireland. She has retained an interest in the travel industry, and works with 80% of all UK and Irish travel agents with her multi lingual call centre, 7 day a week, based in Glenageary Co Dublin.

Together with her partner, former Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey she also runs a successful Business - DJ Carey Enterprises which will soon launch its website www.djdirect.ie and Sarah hopes to duplicate the success she had with Needahotel.com

She has just finished her latest project - a chalet in Zermatt, Switzerland, named after her daughter Grace - www.chaletgrace.com. The chalet is available for rent in the winter for the ski season, and she is planning a mind, body and soul experience in the summer. This was a passion of Sarah's, one which she plans to extend into Ireland and provide Luxury rental properties for the ultimate getaway

Sarah is also the Lady Captain at the K Club for 2010. Known as the 'Tough' Dragon who has yet to invest, Sarah has promised to be nicer this time around

Sean Gallagher Sean learned from an early age that hard work was the only way to overcome life's difficulties.

Born with congenital cataracts, he was almost blind as a child. He struggled through his early years until pioneering surgery saved his sight. Then the advice of an encouraging primary school Headmaster was to change his life: "if you can dream it, you can become it". That advice became his life's mantra.

At 18 Sean wrote a life plan; to become a farmer, a youth leader, a trainer, a martial artist, a fitness instructor, a politician, and an entrepreneur. Over the intervening years, he has relentlessly pursued and achieved every one of his goals.

On leaving school, he attended Agricultural College and went on to buy a farm at the age of 21. At 26 he was commissioned to develop the Government's first National Alcohol Education Programme for Young People. By 28 he had become full time Political Adviser to the then Minister for Health, Dr. Rory O Hanlon T.D. In 1995 Sean was appointed A/CEO of Louth's County Enterprise Board. Over the following 5 years he graduated with an MBA, developed and presented "start-your-own business" courses to hundreds of budding entrepreneurs.

In 2000 he left to pilot his own business venture, with business partner Derek Roddy. Two years later they launched Smarthomes. Sean turned a good idea into a company with a turnover of €10 million in six years - Smarthomes install cabling and technology into homes, providing home owners with access to the latest in Communication and Entertainment services. In 2006 Sean was a finalist in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

With the recent downturn in the building sector in Ireland, the company is currently embarking on an ambitious plan to enter foreign markets. Smarthomes are also active in the energy space and are currently pioneering technology that will allow home owners set and control their home heating systems from anywhere in the world via a standard text message or via the internet.

Committed to helping those wishing to set up their own businesses, Sean now spends much of his time presenting and giving motivational talks to aspiring or early stage entrepreneurs. He has spoken to hundreds of groups and is a regular contributor at seminars on success, business and entrepreneurship.

In 2008, Sean was appointed by the Government to the North South trade body, Intertrade Ireland.

In an effort to recover from injuries suffered in a car crash in his early twenties, Sean became passionately committed to health and fitness. He became a qualified fitness instructor and massage therapist. Over the past twenty years he has attained first degree black belts in both Judo and Karate. In 2009 he took part in, and won, the RTE Charity Lords of the Ring boxing show raising much needed funds for his chosen charity, the National Council for the Blind.

As an entrepreneur Sean knows from experience the many joys and challenges of setting up and growing a successful business in Ireland. He believes that the changing nature of our economy continues to offer endless and exciting opportunities for those courageous enough to pursue their dreams.

Bobby Kerr Bobby Kerr, 49, had a very eventful 2008/2009. Aside from becoming a Dragon, he spearheaded the sale of the Kerr family business - Newpark Hotel in Kilkenny - for €23 million. Last year he sold 51% of his Insomnia group to Penninn, valuing the business at €16 million.

Bobby got the business bug at a young age while helping his father run the four star Newpark Hotel in Kilkenny. At 16 he was introduced to the hotel kitchen where he sweated his way through two summers, learning some of the favourite game dishes that he still cooks today.

A career in catering followed, when he landed his very first job at AIB Catering in Ballsbridge. He was soon travelling the globe, working as a chef on Oil Rigs in the North Sea, and then to Canada where he gained vast experience in stadium catering. He went on to co-ordinate catering for 1 million people at the Pope's visit to Canada in 1985.

He returned to Ireland in the mid-80s where he worked initially at Jury's Hotels, followed by Campbell Catering in Cork and then Bewley's. As Managing Director of Bewley's Oriental Cafe, Bewley's Franchising and Bewley's Bakery he oversaw 30 Bewley's Cafes and a bakery with a turnover of €40 million. He was also responsible for the overseas development of the Bewley's Brand in the UK, USA and Japan. In 1999 Bobby set up PERK Coffee Shops in Dublin, before selling the brand to Insomnia. Bobby reinvested all the proceeds of the PERK sale back into Insomnia and became a shareholder and CEO. Since 2004 he has led the expansion of Insomnia from 17 to 50 shops and increased turnover from €5 to €13 million.

Bobby lives in an old house by the sea in Sandycove, with his wife Mary and their four daughters. He is actively involved in raising money for Blackrock Hospice and through the organising of Fitzgerald's Sailing Regatta and after dinner speaking he has raised over €70K for the hospice over the last three years.

He has been a keen yachtsman for the last 25 years, having started sailing when he worked in Cork. Naturally, he has his own yacht and races competitively in Dun Laoghaire.

Show format
Bidding entrepreneurs and product designers who believe they have the "next big thing" that will generate a huge profit enter the "den" as they are unable to finance their product/service and need the guidance of the "dragons". They then pitch their idea to the five previously mentioned dragons that have the expertise, knowledge and finances to get this idea into the market. Previous to entering the show each contestant much state a fixed amount of money which they wish to obtain from the dragons, if they are unable to negotiate this amount of money then according to the rules of the show they will then leave the "den" with no money at all. After delivering their speech the contestants will then be under scrutiny about every aspect of their company, if the contestant is not prepared the dragons will tear their company apart leaving them humiliated on national television. It is advised to have all your facts and figures correct before entering the den! If the contestant is lucky enough to negotiate an investment from one or more of the dragons then they in return will have to give the dragon a share of their companies stock. This is often a key point of the show as the dragons will use their expertise in order to obtain as large a portion of shares as possible. This is often the point when a good idea is up for grabs and the dragons may bid against one another and they often enter into an agreement that they will go half and half