Barenaked Foods Noodles, 6 x 380g

Product Information

We have a turnover of 600, 000 as of June 2015, a 110 per cent increase on the previous year. With our extended distribution, turnover for the next year will hit 1m. I started off by importing 3, 000 units of product, and now we import 80, 000 units every six weeks. We currently sell in Dubai. We are looking for distributors in the USA, Canada, and Europe. The world is our oyster. I always said after Dragons' Den that I wanted to take on the world! Describe your growth funding path: I needed investment and exposure to help my business grow. Dragons’ Den is an amazing platform to help people with great ideas turn them into reality. All of the Dragons areextremely clever people with a wealth of experience. The hard work really starts when you get the investment. The biggest tip I have for people is to learn. Bare Naked Foods is a brand of plant-based noodles, protein noodles, and rice that are low-carb, low-calorie, and have zero fat in them. They are also 100% vegan friendly.

These products are made from the konjac plant. Each serving (125g) of noodles or rice is only 15kcal! Each serving (125g) is only 22kcal! They also contain Glucomannan, which supposedly encourages weight loss. It was my girlfriend (now wife) that gave me the confidence and courage to construct a business plan and seek investment to start Bare Naked Foods. I can remember the pep talk! She told me to stop moaning about my current job and either carry on doing it, or write a business plan and go and start-up the low-carb pasta business I kept talking about. He included a cooking demonstration of his noodles with the help of Dragon Kelly Hoppen which did not go as smoothly as he hoped.Ross admits that he has always found weight loss ‘especially difficult’ due to his love of pasta and rice. He thought ‘there must be a low fat, low carbohydrate version of the foods that he craves and loves – especially pasta!’ Breaking into the multiple grocery market. Our first listing in the UK was in Morrisons. What numbers do you look at every day in your business? With the help of Peter Jones, who provided 60, 000 for a 50 per cent stake in Barenaked Foods, Mendham has launched Barenaked Rice which has only 16 calories per 100g. This product joins Barenaked Noodles and Barenaked Protein Noodles in a growing roster of sought-after products. The entrepreneur decided that he would make this food available in the UK, so he created his own recipe with a blend of konjac, soybean and oatmeal flour to give his noodles a texture similar to traditional rice noodles. His recipe had no fat, sugar, dairy or gluten and was low in carbohydrate — and so… Barenaked Noodles were born! How hard and competitive the food industry is and how difficult it is to create a recognised food brand. I still would have done it though! The tougher something is, the more I want it! Business book:

Entrepreneurs are so eager to succeed that they sometimes have unrealistic expectations. I ALWAYS see entrepreneurs overvalue their business. It happens in the Den all the time! You must also be willing to listen to advice. How will your market look in three years? I had no experience in the food sector, apart from being a foodie at home. Since my company’s incorporation, and with the help of thepeter Jones? team, I have learnt so much about this industry. Ross was given initial funding from his future father-in-law, to get the business started. He travelled to the Chamber of Commerce, in China, to find out more about noodle manufacture. Since I first featured on Dragons’ Den it’s been an emotional roller-coaster and as with any business, it’s been challenging to get to the top. Even when you get investment, success is not guaranteed. But with hard work, we have managed to take Barenaked Foods to where it is today. After struggling with “always being on a diet”, I wanted to make it easier for people in a similar situation to lose weight without missing out on the food they like and love. There was a gap in the market and I thought I would be able to launch my new product and food brand.Sadly, after hours upon hours of trawling through the internet, searching supermarkets and health food shops, he had no success. However, after further research, he discovered konjac, a food crop grown across south-east Asia. Bare Naked noodles are available to buy in Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, Sainsburys and many independent outlets www.barenakedfoods.co.uk.

The only downside is the chicanery around declared weights (common to all konyaku noodle suppliers), which makes price comparison treacherous; as the noodles must be delivered in liquid, the drained weight vs full weight is rather important. Barenaked seems to be delivered in a minimum amount of liquid (good) but the drained weight is 350g, not the 380g claimed. Barenaked noodles and rice have also caught the attention of celebrities and influencers, who now enjoy them as part of a balanced/restricted diet or to aid their weight management plans. It's one of the hardest roads you can ever go down but the rewards are amazing and I’m not talking just financially – one year after I appeared on Dragons' Den, my son Oliver-Jude was born. Personal growth Biggest luxury: Ross Mendham is the Managing Director and brain behind Bare Naked Foods. He took his idea of low-carb, low-calorie, and zero fat noodles and protein noodles to the Dragons in season 11. The language barrier was difficult but he knew that he had to find a factory which met UK food production standards. His patience paid off when he found the ideal place to produce his own style of konjac (or shirataki) noodles.

“…the company has gone from strength to strength…”

It's expanding year on year. Consumers are always looking at healthy alternatives. In the future, there will be a healthy gluten-free alternative for every product. What is the single most important piece of advice you would offer to a less experienced entrepreneur? Konyaku noodels are essential to my dietary plans, and the Barenaked brand is a significant technological advance; the noodles are white rather than clear, and in strands rather than bunches - so are superior to other brands.