Deirdre Collins of Dee’s Veg-e-que will appear on tonight’s edition of Dragon’s Den. Deirdre makes delicious wholefood burgers from her production unit in Ballincollig, Cork. She has 2 skus and both are free of meat, wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, salt and sugar.

Deirdre is part of the IEA’s Channel Clusters Programme and is being mentored by Conor Hyde. Since the programme started, Dee’s, as the brand is known, is being distributed by the Channel Partner, Horgan’s Deli Supplies, and is now listed with both Dunnes and Superquinn.

The wholefood burgers are a chilled product and they have a short shelf life. To extend the life of the product, Deirdre needs gas flush packaging but this requires a financial investment, which she had difficulty obtaining. With this technology, export markets are within reach of Dee’s so it’s extremely important for her business.

Hence the reason Deirdre has sought the assistance of the Dragons. As everyone knows, you have to know your numbers inside out if you want to impress the dragons, so her mentor, Conor Hyde, linked her with an accountant to prime her for this appearance. Hopefully, she has covered all angles.

Tune in tonight to see if Dee is successful.