Inventor takes on the Dragons

8:30pm Tuesday 2nd September 2008

THINGS got a little heated when a local inventor appeared on the reality TV show Dragons’ Den.

Martin Wadsworth, the managing director of Discrete Heat, locked horns with Scottish “Dragon”, Duncan Bannatyne, as he presented his high pressure pitch.

The stand-off was shown on Monday night’s episode of the BBC2 series.

The programme challenges entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to a group of millionaire business leaders — Dragons — in a bid to get them to invest in their product.

Mr Wadsworth, whose business is based in Atherton, presented his invention, Thermaskirt — a heated aluminium skirting board he claims is a more efficient alternative to radiators. The product helped his company to win the technology, innovation and design award at the recent Bolton and Bury Business Awards.

Mr Wadsworth hoped to take the project further by getting the Dragons to invest £150,000 in return for ten per cent of his business, but Mr Bannatyne was having none of it.

The millionaire argued it would be better to put pipes in a wooden skirting board, but he was put in his place by the Bolton inventor, who explained wood does not radiate heat.

Mr Wadsworth said: “He tried to tell me that you could make an alternative product, which made him look a bit of an idiot, really. We’ve had a few calls since the show aired from people saying they can’t believe he said that.”

Although he was unsuccessful in his bid for investment, a number of the Dragons expressed an interest in Thermaskirt. James Caan and Peter Jones both said they would like to invest in Discrete Heat, but said they did not feel they could add anything to the business.

For more on this story see Wednesday's paper.