Demanding Dragon – Loves Da Pop

Multi-millionaire Dragon Peter Jones met Martin, Tom and Christian, the entrepreneurs behind ‘Love Da Pop’ popcorn, on Dragons Den and immediately recognised the commercial potential in the three Saatchi and Saatchi Executives.

Their pitch on Dragon’s Den was for investment in “Love Da Pop” branded popcorn made with vegetable oil as this overcomes the “cardboard taste” of standard bulk manufactured popcorn blown by hot air. The Dragons gave the popcorn credit for its fantastic taste but were not so sure about some of the other aspects of the presentation, including the packaging. However, Peter Jones decided an investment in Love Da Pop could pay dividends.

In order to overcome the problems associated with the existing popcorn packaging the entrepreneurs turned to the National Flexible technical team. Their brief was to retain the authentic paper feel of the original bags whilst improving the quality, appearance and feel of the original packaging.

National Flexible’s technical team’s solution was a laminate with increased thickness of the outer paper layer and a metallised inner layer. The new pack not only increases the popcorn’s shelf life, it also significantly enhances the pack’s rigidity giving it a high quality “feel”. Amendments to the original graphic design were also made to reduce the number of plates and thus reduce the overall cost of printing the full range of six designs.

According to Aaron Abbs the National Flexible Regional Sales Manager, the result is a pack which feels great, looks great, whilst better preserving the product, and keeping the cost down.

With imaginative and innovative flavours Love Da Pop is a memorable brand name that could go far. Certainly the founders will see benefits from input of professional investor Peter Jones along with the efforts of the National Flexible Print and Technical Teams.