Barenaked Foods Noodles, 6 x 380g

Product Information

Bare Naked Foods specialises in low-carbohydrate, gluten-free noodles, pastas, rice and ready meals. Barenaked noodles and rice have also caught the attention of celebrities and influencers, who now enjoy them as part of a balanced/restricted diet or to aid their weight management plans.

Getting your goods into a big supermarket can be transformational (5) What made you want to take part in Dragons? Den? Konyaku noodels are essential to my dietary plans, and the Barenaked brand is a significant technological advance; the noodles are white rather than clear, and in strands rather than bunches - so are superior to other brands.Ross Mendham is the Managing Director and brain behind Bare Naked Foods. He took his idea of low-carb, low-calorie, and zero fat noodles and protein noodles to the Dragons in season 11. He had a difficult pitch with Deborah Meaden and Kelly Hoppen opting out very early. After an emotional explanation of funding, Mendham received interesting offers from Duncan Bannatyne, Piers Linney, and Peter Jones.

Since I first featured on Dragons’ Den it’s been an emotional roller-coaster and as with any business, it’s been challenging to get to the top. Even when you get investment, success is not guaranteed. But with hard work, we have managed to take Barenaked Foods to where it is today. Ross admits that he has always found weight loss ‘especially difficult’ due to his love of pasta and rice. He thought ‘there must be a low fat, low carbohydrate version of the foods that he craves and loves – especially pasta!’ I had the idea for a low-carbohydrate pasta and rice in 2010. I didn’t have the guts to start the business because I was scared of failing.It's expanding year on year. Consumers are always looking at healthy alternatives. In the future, there will be a healthy gluten-free alternative for every product. What is the single most important piece of advice you would offer to a less experienced entrepreneur?

Konjac (‘Shirataki’) noodles can be created by harvesting fibre from the konjac root by mashing it down into a flour, before mixing it with water and calcium hydroxide to create a gel which can be cut into strips. Description in one line: Innovative manufacturer of healthy, gluten-free, pasta, rice and ready meals Although he admits to constantly working towards “world domination” with his business, the one thing Ross is most proud of is the birth of his son, Oliver-Jude. These products are made from the konjac plant. Each serving (125g) of noodles or rice is only 15kcal! Each serving (125g) is only 22kcal! They also contain Glucomannan, which supposedly encourages weight loss. Entrepreneurs are so eager to succeed that they sometimes have unrealistic expectations. I ALWAYS see entrepreneurs overvalue their business. It happens in the Den all the time! You must also be willing to listen to advice. How will your market look in three years?

The only downside is the chicanery around declared weights (common to all konyaku noodle suppliers), which makes price comparison treacherous; as the noodles must be delivered in liquid, the drained weight vs full weight is rather important. Barenaked seems to be delivered in a minimum amount of liquid (good) but the drained weight is 350g, not the 380g claimed. After struggling with “always being on a diet”, I wanted to make it easier for people in a similar situation to lose weight without missing out on the food they like and love. There was a gap in the market and I thought I would be able to launch my new product and food brand. We have a turnover of 600, 000 as of June 2015, a 110 per cent increase on the previous year. With our extended distribution, turnover for the next year will hit 1m. I started off by importing 3, 000 units of product, and now we import 80, 000 units every six weeks. Breaking into the multiple grocery market. Our first listing in the UK was in Morrisons. What numbers do you look at every day in your business? I was extremely nervous standing in front of the Dragons' Den panel, presenting Bare Naked Noodles after working so hard to build the business that we started in 2011. It was great to get the expert business insight of the panel and now I'm looking forward to helping more health conscious people discover our fantastic range of noodles", Ross Mendham said.