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MAKING DOUGH
I was rejected by Dragons’ Den but now my cookies are on sale in Co-op and my company is worth £600,000
AN ENTREPENEUR who was turned down by the Dragons' Den multi-millionaires now sells her line of health-conscious cookies in supermarkets across the UK.
When Evie Waxman entered the business tycoons' lair, she divided opinions as she vied to get their support and walked away without a £50,000 investment.
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But that hasn't stopped the 27-year-old chef from turning her bright idea to create raw and vegan cookies into a successful business.
The young entrepreneur developed when she was 21 after visiting Australia and has worked tirelessly to get it off the ground.
Two years ago, she turned to BBC's Dragon's Den shows to win financial backing from Deborah Meedham, Touker Suleyman, Sara Davies or Peter Jones.
But not all the investors believed she had a viable business on her hands that was capable of making any money.
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Jones was the first to bow out, telling Evie after a brief consideration he was going to be "brutal" and said despite thinking one of the flavour options was "really nice", he said he didn't like any of the others
He told her: "If the taste of the product just doesn't have it then I don't think this has a chance."
Deborah Meedham said Evie's raw crookie range had "a good crunch" and she became interested in the product.
She said: "I completely disagree with Peter, I think they taste absolutely delicious."
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But the cookies were a relatively new focus at the time and not far enough along in development to win her over.
Evie walked away with her head held high despite hearing the dreaded "I'm out" five times.
She told The Sun Online: "You're not going to please everyone and that was my reaction to when Peter Jones said absolutely not.
"I wasn't offended because he's not a demographic that we were targeting, he's not the consumer that I'm targeting.
"I knew that he wouldn't like a product like ours any way."
Despite Jones' doubts, today Evie's business is going is soaring without any help from the moguls.
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Evie's launched her cookie range into the WHSmith Travel stores nationwide just two months after appearing on the show and she's since outsourced all production to factories in the UK.
She said: "After we came off that episode we moved out of our production unit and started outsourcing all of our production, so we were exporting to Germany, and selling into WH Smith.
"But the volumes were too big for us to produce ourselves, so we moved everything to a manufacturing site based in the UK, and decided to focus on the 'crookie' range."
Raw Bake Station also launched with Co-op starting with just 45 stores then a year later, a further 495 Co-op stores and in late 2021 partnered with Ocado.
You're going to face a lot of rejection in business, but it's about how you dust yourself off and keep pushing
Evie Waxman
This year Evie's products can now be found in a supermarket in Kuwait and has plans to work with major other chains this year.
Raw Bake Station also has collaborations in the works with a number of other wholesalers.
Her sweet treats come in a series of flavours such as salted double chocolate, chocolate and orange and vanilla chocolate chip.
Evie says today despite being on the receiving end of some tough criticism, overall she found the whole experience "extremely positive".
The business is forecasted to make £365,000 and is currently seeking investment with a pre-money valuation of £600K.
During the couple of hours she was in the room, Evie received feedback on the brand that has helped her go forward.
She said "It gave us a platform to raise awareness of our brand, it was definitely worth it."
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Evie believes anyone trying to get a business off the ground should never take no for an answer if you whole-heartedly believe in your product.
She said: "You're not going to please everyone.
"If you know your market and your consumers then you should just go after them and not be afraid of rejection, because you're going to face a lot of rejection in business, but it's about how you dust yourself off and keep pushing."
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