After a tumultuous spring and summer thanks to COVID-19, local entrepreneurs and co-owners of Smooth 42 Craft Distillery in Brownlee, Sask. have some incredible news after premiering on the new season of the popular show Dragons’ Den.
Sacha Elez and Adam Dombowsky travelled to Toronto in August to appear on the entrepreneurial show, to make their investment pitch to a panel of six Canadian business moguls on national television.
Because of the uncertainty around COVID-19 restrictions, Elez said producers were unsure if the season would even be able to proceed but ultimately invited Smooth 42 to do their live pitch, which ended up being the opening deal the premiere episode.
“We were really pleased with the way the episode turned out and honoured that they picked our segment to the first of the season,” said Elez, after the show had aired. “We had no idea they were going to do that [and] it's like a dream come true.”
The pair were ultimately successful, landing a joint deal with Den veteran and marketing expert Arlene Dickinson and tech mogul Michele Romanow — the Dragon dream-team that Elez said he and Dombowsky were hoping to work with.
“It was almost like coming down from a high after, when you walk out with the adrenaline rush,” said Elez.
Dickinson and Romanow offered a $150,000 investment for 15 per cent ownership in Smooth 42, split evenly between the two of them.
The two Dragons will bring with them expertise in marketing and tech expansion, which Elez admitted was one weak point of their current business and the area they were seeking help from the Dragons to improve.
“Our marketing has kind of always fallen by the wayside, because Adam and I are busy running a business. It's always on the to-do list but we don't always get around to it,” said Elez.
Elez shared on the show that although COVID-19 disrupted their expected sales in Smooth 42’s alcohol products, the craft distillery has collected around $2 million in sales so far this year between its alcohol and liquid hand sanitizer products.
He also said that the Cre8 Liquid Hand Sanitizer — the high-proof alcohol brewed to be a hand sanitizer product — was the top seller within its category on Amazon for several months in the summer.
The pitch itself took almost 45 minutes, said Elez, as the Dragons asked questions and discussed Smooth 42 and its products.
“It was a really good conversation back and forth, the Dragons were all super nice,” said Elez. “I know on the episode it looks like Manjit [Minhas] was kind of a hardass, but I actually expected a harder time from her. She was nice, considering she’s technically competition.”
The innovation of both the hand sanitizer production and the unique Cre8 Eco Vodka product caught the attention of five of the six members of the Dragons panel, which Elez and Dombowsky were not expecting to happen.
“We weren’t prepared for five offers, we had talked about different scenarios so we were on the same page because we didn’t want to leave the show to talk, but we hadn’t discussed that possibility,” said Elez. “But we stuck with our plan, we knew who we were going there for.”
Because of changes to the show, Elez and Dombowksy didn't get their on-air celebration moment with the Dragons, shaking hands and sealing the deal. But Elez said just having the opportunity to be there was most important, as the show offered them the option of giving their pitch over video instead of in-person.
“I wish I was able to shake their hands, but I was just glad we were able to be there in person,” said Elez. “We didn’t think [video] would have nearly the same impact, so we drove out there to do it in person and we’re really happy with the whole process.”
Details on the exciting deal are still being finalized, said Elez, but Smooth 42 is looking forward to the connections and mentorship that Romanow and Dickinson will bring to the small town of Brownlee’s biggest distillery.
