Dragons choose their winner
Kidbrooke Village hosted its first Dragons Den event on Wednesday 17th January, which saw MGM Gyms take home the £3,000 prize fund (sponsored by Berkeley and Moat Foundation). Held at the Kidbrooke Community Hub, the event forms part of Berkeley’s continuing social value commitment to nurturing small businesses. Consequently, this provided local entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop their pitching skills, with the winner receiving £3,000 worth of mentoring, branding and marketing training to enable them to take their business to the next level.
Entrants ranged from a Maltese baked-good venture set up by a student from Thomas Tallis secondary school, an ayurvedic wellbeing programme, a children’s games club started by three mums at Kidbrooke Village, a mentoring and personal development curriculum to raise the achievements of African-Caribbean girls at school, a community marquees and events company, a Trinidadian mobile food company and a gym that offers Muay Thai and dance to empower the community.
The decision on who would win, laid squarely with the Dragons who were comprised of: Cllr Mariam Lolavar – Royal Borough of Greenwich, Cabinet Lead for Business and Economic Growth; Gerard McIvor – Berkeley, Finance Director; Clive Jelf – South East Enterprise, E-Business Manager. Michelle Edwards – Moat Foundation Community Engagement Officer also sat on the judging panel and said: “Totally inspiring event! I was honoured to sit on the panel as a Dragon’s Den judge and hear confident and articulate pitches from aspiring entrepreneurs whose aim was to bring their communities together and impact them in a positive way by starting up or scaling up their businesses. So proud to have been a sponsor of the event and well done to all contestants, they done themselves and Kidbrooke Village proud!”.
After much deliberation, the Dragons opted for MGM Gyms pitch after hearing about their unique approach to fitness and community empowerment. During their presentation Kidbrooke Village resident Jonathan Moore who owns the business with his sister Hannah-Ruth Moore; both professional athletes in their own right spoke of they recently opened gym in Edward Street, Deptford. Which is providing a place where people off all ages can come together in a safe space to engage in dance, martial arts and fitness activities.
Upon being awarded the prize Jonathan said: “It is an absolute honour for me and my sister to win, especially as my father was there in the audience to watch me! The gym is named after him and I was very humbled by this and I’m really looking forward to gaining access to the follow-up business support as part of the prize package. We now need help with funding for our dance floor, signage, marketing and equipment. Along with building costs such as a new mezzanine, reception area, changing rooms and gym frontage. We previously did a crowdfunding campaign and successfully raised £10,000 and will be launching another one to raise £150,000 which will set us up to effectively deliver our ambitious programme.”
Kay Oldroyd, Berkeley’s Social Value Manager for Kidbrooke Village organised the event and said: “It was wonderful to see these small business owners – the majority of them being Kidbrooke Village residents – take the opportunity to pitch their dream to the Dragons today. Such a wide variety of ideas demonstrates how diverse our community is and how much value local entrepreneurs add to the social, economic and cultural infrastructure. Congratulations to everyone and especially our very first winner MGM Gyms.”
For more information on MGM Gyms please visit their website
