Duncan Bannatyne ‘probably broke even’ on Dragons’ Den investments

Throughout the ten years he appeared on the show Mr Bannatyne invested into 36 business proposals. In 2016, he announced that he had sold all of his shares in projects pitched to the Dragons.

Speaking on Ruth Davidson’s LBC programme, An Inconvenient Ruth, Mr Bannatyne said that the Dragon’s Den was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in publicity for the dragons’ other businesses.

When asked about the success of his investments, he said: “I probably broke even, made a little bit, or broke even, but it became obvious to me that wasn’t where the money in this was.

“I remember talking to (fellow dragon) Theo Paphitis one day and we said that you know it’s worth £100,000 a year, the publicity that we get from it for our businesses.”

Mr Bannatyne, who owns the Bannatyne chain of hotels, health clubs and spas, estimated that COVID-19 has cost his businesses £30 million, The Times reports.

He said: “The whole tragedy has cost my company about £30m and funded up by me, me not taking dividends I’m not going to take, and by leaving a loan in. But people have lost their lives and people have lost their jobs, and it’s much more terrible for them. If we (as a business) continue now, we can survive. We’re still in survival mode because we’ve lost about 25% to 30% of our members.”