Dragon Profile - Gavin Duffy
Serial investor Gavin Duffy is one of Ireland's foremost dealmakers and brand launch
experts.
He 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. He is part owner of the HRM Group of Companies, one Ireland's biggest players in recruitment.
On series 1 of Dragons' Den he made four investments, Animatazz, Henparty.ie, PedigreeCattle.ie and Takker. On series 2 he made a further four investments; Herbie's Toilet Pipe Cover, Hidbin, TanOrganic and Huggy Bloom.
Animatazz, an animation kit which teaches kids how to make their own animated movie and upload it to YouTube, was Ireland's number one seller arts and crafts toy in Xmas 2009. For The Global Rights to Animatazz were sold to Drummond Park in late 2009 and it is on sale throughout the UK for Xmas 2010 at Argos, Tesco, ToysRus, Hamleys and Harrods.
HenParty.ie enjoyed a spectacularly successful first year becoming the main website portal for everything to do with Hen Parties. In February it launched in the UK and in late 2010 the site went live in Poland.
PedigreeCattle.ie has become the number one equipment supplier to owners of show cattle. This is a fantastic import substitution success as all this equipment used to be purchased on- line and by catalogue from the UK.
Takker, remains a top seller, having been launched in October '09. The Takker helps you hang picture in a shot and got great support from Irish DIY chain, Woodies & Atlantic Homecare.
Herbie Porche's Toilet Pipe Cover is now in all DIY hardware stores nationwide.
HidBin is a new solution to a big problem. Those ugly wheelie bins in your front garden. This Xmas will see the launch of the HidBin which turns the unsightly into the unseen.
TanOrganic is the sensational hit of series 2. In its first three months, since August 2010, in Pharmacies in Ireland, it has generated over ¤1m in sales. On top of that in its first six months over 1 million spray applications of TanOrganic were applied in Irish Salons.
All five Dragons invested in Claire & Jen's Baby and Pregnancy Fair at the RDS back in October which was a major success and runs again in April 2011.
"I am really looking forward to series 3 and hope to make more investments", says Gavin. He concludes, "It is so exciting working with start-ups and being exposed to new sectors. Also we get great support from Irish Retailers. I was very fortunate in the first two series, all my investments have been successful and some spectacularly so. Hopefully the luck will continue.
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