A KIRKLEES couple are preparing to make their return to hit BBC2 show Dragons’ Den this week after securing an investment of £80,000 earlier this year.
Liz and Alan Colleran, owners of Raskelf, the Dewsbury-based memory foam product specialist, will feature on Dragons’ Den: The Hilary Devey Story at 8pm on Thursday.
Hilary invested in the business back in the summer after being impressed with Liz and Alan’s pitch for their award-winning Duvalay product, a zip-up memory foam mattress and duvet combo aimed at the caravan and motor home sector.
The special show focuses on Hilary’s rise to Dragons’ Den stardom and catches up with some of the entrepreneurs that she backed in the last series.
Liz and Alan where filmed attending a meeting with Hilary at Virgin Atlantic’s headquarters in Crawley to discuss potential business opportunities. The visit also involved a video conference with Sir Richard Branson.
Commenting on the forthcoming appearance, Liz said: “2011 has been an amazing year for Raskelf and being invited back on to Dragons’ Den is the perfect way to end it.
“Since our initial appearance, we have been working alongside Hilary and her team to look at new ways of increasing our presence in the market and making Raskelf and Duvalay household names.
“As this new show demonstrates, Hilary has certainly created new opportunities for us and we are looking forward to what 2012 holds for our business.”
Liz and Alan began their search for a suitable “mattress topper” back in 2003 – after enduring years of back pain trying to get a comfortable night’s sleep while caravanning.
They tried numerous materials, thicknesses and styles before perfecting the Raskelf Portable Memory Foam mattress topper.
The business, which began in the front room of their home, now occupies premises at Staincliffe Mills in Dewsbury and variations on the mattress topper have been developed for use in boats, motor caravans and the home.
Early in 2005, the company took the ingenious step of coupling the portable memory foam toppers with a shaped duvet to create the Duvalay, for which the company now owns the patent.
