A former Dundee man has scooped a major deal for his take on Scotland’s tartan heritage on the Canadian version of Dragon’s Den.
Former Grove Academy pupil Derek Macrae (39), who was born and raised in Broughty Ferry and now lives in Toronto, is well on the way to his first million after winning over one of the most hard-nosed business people in Canada with his idea of towels that look like kilts.
Jim Treliving, a multi-millionnaire who owns several chains including Boston Pizza and garage company Mr Lube as well as Laser Centres, was so impressed with Derek’s idea and his pitch that he invested $80,000 (Canadian) for a half share in the company.
Derek is the president of Instakilt, which has designed a line of beach towels which look just like kilts.
They were already on sale in novelty shops in Scotland and Canada when Derek spotted their potential and bought the owner out for $100,000 (Canadian) last year.
To expand the company, he decided to enter Canada’s version of Dragon’s Den and completely bowled over the judges when he marched on set, complete with piper and two models in beachwear to show off the towels.
”It was very daunting but I got away with it because they were in a good mood because of the piper and the models,” Derek told The Courier last night from his office in Ontario.
”These people are really tough and that was the fear for me going on the show.
”I thought they might have called me an idiot and after that it would be very difficult to carry on because everybody watches it.
”I haven’t got the money yet, it all takes a lot of time to get things finalised. They’ve got to do all sorts of checks on my company.
”It feels weird because it was filmed about six or seven months ago and only shown on TV yesterday.
”I’m hoping with this deal, Jim’s financial input and his business acumen, they will get into the bigger retail stores, maybe like M&S back home in Scotland.”
Raised in East Balgillo, he was a pupil at Forthill Primary and then Grove Academy, before studying at Abertay University.
”I moved to Edinburgh for a job in sales and then came over to Canada when I was 27.
”The thing about Canada and the US is there are about 50 million people who claim to be of Scottish descent so there’s a huge market for stuff like this.”
Derek says the next few months will be spent finalising the deal with the aim of getting the towel/kilts on sale for the summer and next Christmas markets.
Before that, however, he is planning a trip back to Tayside to catch up with his gran and his sister, who still live in Arbroath.
His parents, Hugh and Barbara, passed away last year.
The keen football fan said: ”I’m hoping to come back and catch one of the derby matches next year, I think there’s one at Tannadice in March.
”I’m a Dundee United fan but my sister Jenny and her husband are Dundee fans. And I’ll be visiting my gran Nan.
”If these towel/kilts don’t sell as well as we’re hoping then I’ll be back for good, picking berries at Blairgowrie like I did when I was a kid.”
You can see Derek on Dragon’s Den at
cbc.ca/dragonsden/2012/11/instakilt.html
.