UK manufacturer ‘fixes’ deal with Dragon’s Den winner

A UK manufacturer has invested in a new injection moulding machine as it gears up for full production of a product range that scooped success on BBC TV series, Dragon’s Den.

Plymouth-based Thornbury Manufacturing Limited (TML) has taken delivery of a Wittmann Battenfeld HM 65 machine in order to satisfy the anticipated demand for the ‘Grip It Fixings’, a new solution for the building trade.

The product, designed by 19-year-old Jordan Daykin, is primarily designed for use in plasterboard. Plasterboard installations have, to date, been notoriously difficult to drill for strong and adequate fixing and hanging solutions. The new ‘Grip It Fixing’ provides a ready answer to the problem and has been gaining ground in UK DIY chains, such as Wickes.

The August 17 episode of Dragon’s Den saw panellist, Deborah Meaden, invest a stake of £80,000 into Grip It Fixings in exchange for a 25 percent stake. 

The association and product development work with Plymouth-based TML dates back to Spring 2010, when TML founder and director, Dick Walsh, began work on the design and manufacture of the moulding with the Daykin family.

“A good amount of fine-tuning and engineering – in both plastics and metals – was required in order to mould and machine the product into the solution that it is today,” recalled Walsh.

The Grip It Fixings plastics component is moulded in acetal and is 100 percent recyclable. The mild steel zinc-coated back plates, catches and other componentry all required precision machining by TML in order to produce a lock-tight mechanism and thus fully guarantee the load-bearing performance of the new product.

Deborah Meaden tested this tough specification for herself on the August 17 TV programme by sitting in a chair suspended by chains from the Grip It Fixings.

“As the Dragon’s Den TV programme showed,” said Walsh, “the performance of the product is truly ground breaking. We are now moulding a range of four Grip It Fixing sizes and are anticipating a steady market uplift from all corners of the building and DIY trades.”

Walsh said that the performance from the new Wittmann moulding machine, the second it has bought in 2014, “never lets them down” amidst the high-volume demand for the new product range.