TWO ‘dragons’ who backed a working mother and helped transform her ‘kitchen table business’ into an online wool company with a £680,000 turnover have visited her first retail store in Brierley.
Touker Suleyman and Tej Lalvani from the BBC show Dragon’s Den backed Wool Couture Company, an online designer and retailer of luxury yarns, and visited its first store in Brierley.
Wool Couture Company was founded by working mum Claire Gelder as a ‘kitchen table business’. She was recently faced with the prospect of relocating to a warehouse to find the larger space her business needed. But Claire instead opted to use the Old Robin Hood pub as the location for its ‘warehouse’, workshop and first flagship retail store.
Similar to its online offering, the Wool Couture shop hopes to inspire others to hand-make, hand-weave and hand-craft items from wool with their bespoke designs.
Touker Suleyman said: “Claire and Ali have built a fantastic brand and business. Their drive and energy is truly at the heart of the company. I am very proud to be associated with Wool Couture and look forward to being on the journey together.”
Tej Lalvani added: “I was highly impressed to see the incredible space Claire and Ali have created at Wool Couture.
“It’s brilliant how they have merged retail store front, office, warehouse, factory and a knitting class lounge/cafe into one beautiful setting. This along with the systems and growth strategies we have put in place will provide the ideal platform for Wool Couture to be one the leaders in their industry.”
