Congratulations to Deirdre Collins of Dee’s Veg-e-Que who secured an investment on Dragon’s Den, which was shown last Thursday night on RTE television. After her flawless presentation, and successfully fielding all their questions, Deirdre was spoiled for choice as 4 of the Dragons vied with each other to claim a stake in her business.

It was clear from the start that she had their interest when she gave them details of her healthy, meat free, wholefood chilled burgers. This interest was heightened when she produced a letter from Horgan’s Deli Supplies stating that they were delivering her product into 40 branches of Dunnes Stores. The Dragons realised they were onto a winner.

After considering the various options, Deirdre, also known as Dee, decided to accept an offer from Niall O’Farrell to invest in her business in return for a stake in her company. This investment will help Dee to invest in packaging that will extend the shelf life of the product and will open up new markets for the brand. No doubt, we’ll hear lots more about Dees’ wholefood burgers in the months ahead.

Deirdre is based in Ballincollig in Cork and is part of the IEA’s Channel Clusters programme and is being mentored by Conor Hyde of Bullseye Food Marketing. She will be exhibiting at the IEA stand at the Food and Drink Expo in Birmingham from Sunday March 21^st to Wednesday March 24^th 2010.

The Channel Clusters was made possible through a financial contribution from the European Regional Development Fund Ireland Wales (INTERREG 4A) Programme 2007 – 2013.