Image via BBC
A tour operator specialising in festival and clubbing holidays received a £100,000 investment after appearing on BBC show Dragons’ Den.
Founders of Mainstage Travel, Rob Tominey, 24, and Aden Levin, 25, impressed the line up of ‘dragons’ on last night’s show. They received offers from four of the panel and chose Piers Linney’s offer.
Cloud computing and technology pioneer Linney offered the cash for a 15% stake in their business, which specialises in packages for festivals or clubbing events in Magaluf and Ayia Napa.
Manchester-based Mainstage also created Snowboxx, one of the largest ski festivals in Europe
The duo impressed with their revenues – they have a projected turnover of £1.6million and a profit of £257,000 for their second year of trading.
Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones and Duncan Bannatyne also offered cash for a slice of the travel business.
Speaking on the show, Tominey said: “Our packages are different and the bottom line to our business model is to sell holidays at a lower price than if customers buy each of the elements individually.
“Our marketing is smart and our operation is slick. This year we will have over 5,000 people going on holiday with us and we have a huge plan for future growth.
“Everything by the existing large standing travel agencies is so outdated and they don’t get the current market at all. Ours are more festival holidays so the customers get an actual event.”
Levin said the duo was hoping to drive capacity and to host their Takeover events in other clubbing destinations.
He said: “Last year we had four weeks in Magaluf, this year we have eight and we have the potential to increase that to the full summer to increase the numbers in capacity per week. We have already seen our passenger numbers increase by 4,000 from last year.”