TWO brothers are hoping to be one of the companies that prove the Dragons wrong after appearing on the BBC two show.
Syd Heath, of Park Road, Great Sankey, and his brother Anthony, aged 47, were told by all five potential investors in the Dragon’s Den ‘I’m out’ on Sunday night.
But undeterred the pair have already had 8,000 orders for their Showerfriend invention and hope the programme’s exposure will see more orders flood in.
Syd, aged 60, said: “This invention was my personal crusade after years of taking the kids camping and caravaning and using showers that are constantly going off and having to press the button again.
“It’s something we would have loved to have had when we were little and when you have got kids camping you need to have two hands free to stop them from running off.”
The pair claim they have solved a problem which affects 35m showers worldwide in gyms and camping sites and their solution also saves water, with the average shower being reduced from 12 minutes to three minutes with the Showerfriend, and they believe it extends the life of the shower valve.
The product has been distributed around the world and in 456 outlets with orders coming in from as far away as New Zealand and Canada.
Granddad-of-one and dad to three children Syd, who has had a number of companies in the cable distribution business, added the duo filmed the programme in March and were the first contestants of the new series.
He added: “Peter Jones said it was ingenious and asked if he could have one but they didn’t think the market was big enough to invest.
“There’s 20m people who go swimming every week and those buttons are everywhere.
“I could name five other products that have been on the show with no investment and made people millionaires so hopefully we will be one of the ones that prove them wrong.”