Dragon's Den tips from Great British Entrepreneur of the Year finalist: South Shields businessman to share his experiences with South Tyneside firms
Gary Giles, a Great British Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and founder of OGEL, moved his company into One Trinity Green, South Shields in December 2020 in a bid to grow the revolutionary building system business, just days after winning recognition at two national and international awards.
A finalist in the prestigious Great British Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 award, Disruptor of the Year category, the former accountant is taking the construction world by storm and has appeared on TV’s Dragon’s Den, which will be aired on Thursday July 8.Gary, who also saw OGEL reach the final of the Building and Construction Product of the Year category at the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2020, will be the special guest at a Business Talk next month.
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Hide AdHe will reveal his experience of pitching his business to the Dragons, as well as discussing how he came up with the idea for OGEL, and sharing its successes to date.
The 53-year-old from South Shields, and E3 Design, based in Newcastle, developed a new system using recycled plastic to construct walls, floors and roofs – the first ever to be globally patented.
Simple, fast, light and reusable, with no glues to stick them together – and they can be used to build anything from flood defences, exhibition stands, flat pack houses, home offices, garden rooms, staycation pods, humanitarian shelters, as well as internal walls in existing buildings.
“Our ‘products of mass construction’ journey has been amazing so far and we’re looking at a very bright future,” said Gary.
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Hide Ad“It’s been one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, but to bring it to market in 2021 makes the hard work all worthwhile.
“We make the most of throwaway items from the most permanent materials so it’s great to be reusing and recycling plastics waste as a force for good.
“Since filming Dragons’ Den we made some design modifications prior to taking our system to market, and we’ve just had a pop-up building delivered to Vero Grid based in Port of Sunderland, for a control room in Zambia which will hopefully lead on to other work for a number of well-known overseas agencies.
“OGEL as a business is going so well that we’re hoping to take on another four people over the next few weeks.”
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Hide AdGary’s appearance will be the latest in a series of Business Talks launched by Invest South Tyneside last year.
He will be interviewed by host Ian Farrar, and the talk and interactive Q&A session will be live streamed from One Trinity Green’s Content Suite at 10am on Friday, July 16.
Gary launched the OGEL TaskPod designed for those working from home in June 2021 and the garden rooms to follow in August 2021.
One Trinity Green has benefitted from £2,466,500 of European Regional Development Fund monies, managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
To find out more about OGEL, visit https://ogel.world/
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Hide AdTo find out more about Invest South Tyneside, visit www.investsouthtyneside.com, or follow on Twitter @STyneBusiness or LinkedIn.
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Copydesk Northeast