Mark Lowe Stares Down The Dragons
MAHONE BAY — Friends and family of Lobster Made Easy founder Mark Lowe met up on Thursday night in Mahone Bay to watch as he pitched his business on CBC’s Dragons Den.
Lowe’s business makes frozen whole microwavable lobsters, a pitch that resonated with the Dragons and garnered multiple offers.
He says his product solves for a lot of the problems people have with cooking lobster at home.
“There’s no smell and no mess, and most importantly it’s impossible to mess up just put in the microwave on high for six minutes and you’ve got a perfectly cooked whole lobster,” Lowe said.
The magic of his product comes in the way it’s packaged. The lobsters are cooked and then sealed in a vacuum-sealed pouch that has a special release valve that is currently awaiting its patent approval.
The crowd that gathered to celebrate Lowe’s appearance on the season premiere of Dragons Den, were cheering loudly when the first offer was made on the show, and they cheered even louder when Loew accepted a deal from Arlene Dickinson of $350,000 for 32 percent of his company.
Lowe received offers of more money for less of his company from some of the other Dragons but Lowe explained that he went with Dickinson because from the outset she seemed to love his product and have a passion for it as well as her connection in the packaging industry.
Lobster Made Easy is in the process of scaling up; its products are primarily available directly either online or at one of the various locations it takes its traveling food truck. However, plans are underway to have Lobster Made Easy available in Sobeys across the Maritimes in the coming months.
Lowe believes with the addition of seasoned businesswoman like Dickinson he will be able to speed up his company’s growth and expand it beyond the Maritimes.
“We want to move west, then South, then overseas to Europe,” Lowe said.
He also spoke about the benefits of being on Dragons Den outside of the deal he struck.
“The other dragons still wanted to help and loved my product. One of them said his neighbour is the president of Sobeys and he’d be happy to introduce me and then Robert offered to come pick me up in his private jet in Mahone Bay- only problem is there’s nowhere to land in our small town,” Lowe explained to a laughing crowd.
The details of the deal are still being ironed out but Lobster Made Easy hopes to be available in supermarkets soon.
Evan Taylor is a reporter with CKBW in Bridgewater, a Huddle content partner.