Westcountry

A Westcountry business producing special towels to dry babies after bathtime has become so successful that they are taking orders from all over the globe.

It all began for Somerset businesswomen Helen Wooldridge and Polly Marsh as they watched their husbands bath their babies back in 2006. As they faced the perennial parenting struggle of trying to lift wriggling wet infants safely from the water and simultaneously wrapping them in a towel, it was clear there must be an easier way.

The seeds were sown for what is now a multi-award winning bestseller for new parents, the Cuddledry baby bath towel. And for their company Cuddledry Ltd - a hugely successful South West business - recently seen by over 3 million people as Helen and Polly bravely turned down offers of investment on BBC TV’s Dragons’ Den!

The Cuddledry baby bath towel achieves that holy grail for all new parents - it simply makes life easier. Its apron-style design and unique double layer system mean that mum or dad has both hands free to lift baby out of the bath, and its generous organic fabric creates a cosy wrap to snuggle your little one quickly dry. It makes baby bathtime easy, and a calm, bonding experience rather than a sopping wet struggle. For these reasons parents worldwide have responded dramatically to the product, and sales as a result are booming.

As Polly says: "We never imagined things would move so fast. When we took our prototype product to its first trade fair in October 2006 we had no idea what to expect. We had done our market research and knew there was a need for the Cuddledry, but to have reached the stage where we are ordering in tens of thousands and starting to retail around the globe within a year was beyond our wildest dreams."

Helen Wooldridge: "Taking part in Dragons' Den forces you to really evaluate your business plan and objectives. You have to be so well prepared in order to walk up those stairs and face the panel, which combined with all the guidance the Dragons themselves give you, really helps you clarify what the future is for your business."

The Cuddledry baby bath towel is now on sale throughout the UK via major baby chains and independent shops and websites, as well as in over a dozen other countries, with more coming on board all the time. Almost 10,000 Cuddledry towels were sold in its first year, and Helen and Polly are finding customers are now clamouring for what is next.

"The baby towel is our flagship product but Cuddledry is about to become a full range, with toddler towels and products for older children being launched this year," explains Helen. "We have had great fun creating them - this time our market research involved kids as well as parents, and our product photo shoot was mayhem with lots of tots and bubbles everywhere!"

The Dragons' Den experience was something Helen and Polly would highly recommend. "Taking part in Dragons' Den forces you to really evaluate your business plan and objectives. You have to be so well prepared in order to walk up those stairs and face the panel, which combined with all the guidance the Dragons themselves give you, really helps you clarify what the future is for your business," says Helen.

"But it is every bit as nerve wracking as you can imagine," adds Polly. "Getting all your facts and figures straight looks easy, but when you are under fire from all of them for two hours its easy to slip up! Annoyingly we failed to realise until afterwards that Theo Paphitis had his figures wrong in our case, but looking back perhaps it has worked in our favour. We have not regretted for a moment our decision to turn down the offers of investment. We went in with a clear plan and stuck to it, and have a successful business under our own control as a result. We would love to have the expertise of the dragons on board, but we quickly realised we would have had to give away too much of what we have worked so hard for. We were inundated with emails of support and offers of investment after the programme aired which was tremendously gratifying. And of course we can't complain about the publicity - sales via our website have tripled since."

So what next for Cuddledry? New products are on their way already, and international expansion is building apace, so do the duo have any more plans up their sleeves? Well, as many of you will have seen on the Dragons' Den follow up programme they are also starting a new business marketing bathtime products for pets, and will be launching this officially later in 2008.

And they are also working hard to promote enterprise amongst young people in the region - giving talks in schools and getting involved in young enterprise activity.

They believe they have proved that the simplest of ideas can make a really significant difference to day to day life - in this case for parents - and that the scope for enterprise within the South West is growing daily as communications technology allows more and more businesses to choose to locate themselves here.