From left to right: Andrew Jones (Haines Watts), Peter Neath, Ian Worton (both Saucestream) and Daniel Montgomery (Haines Watts)

Two old school friends, who took on high-profile entrepreneurs in the Dragon’s Den twice, are setting their sights on a £500,000 sales return for their new eco-friendly solution to serving up sauce.

History has a habit of repeating itself and the duo lived up to this mantra when they became the first entrepreneurs to return to Dragons’ Den with a completely different offer earlier this year. This time, they successfully managed to attract three offers from Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden and newcomer Steven Bartlett, all keen to maximise the sustainable opportunity Saucestream could deliver. However, despite this interest, negotiations are still ongoing on how this deal will look, so for now the entrepreneurs are going it alone.

However, Ian Worton and Peter Neath are confident that Saucestream will prove a big hit with green-minded consumers after it saw an initial spike in online and Amazon orders. Backed by the advisory expertise of Haines Watts, the duo is also about to close several major deals with leading homeware retailers to stock their product, which is a simple pump device that clips directly onto glass bottles and makes it easy to get the sauce out with a simple squeeze.

The device was inspired after a chance viewing of David Attenborough’s ‘Blue Planet’ documentary and is designed to encourage people to switch from single-use plastic bottles to the more sustainable glass alternatives.

Mr Neath, a former automotive engineer by trade, said: “A few designs here, a few conversations there, prototyping in a garage and before you knew it Saucestream was born. Our product, which is now available in five commonly used bottles of sauces, presses all the right buttons. It is a green solution for individuals to replace plastic bottles with glass ones and still be able to get the same ‘squeezing feel’ that gets all the sauce out.”

He continued: “That’s just the beginning. We are only just starting discussions with restaurant chains about switching to our products and if we can get one of these conversations over the line that could be a real gamechanger. Sustainability isn’t going away; it’s only going to grow in importance and hopefully our innovation can play a small part in that.”

Mr Worton and Mr Neath have been supported by Haines Watts for the past seven years, helping them establish and grow their highly successful Grillstream business, a business that has transformed the way BBQs operate.

The specialist accountant and business advisers have guided the entrepreneurs in securing Patent Box allowances and helping it establish the brand as the second largest in the UK and as a thriving exporter.

In recent years, the attention has switched to how they fund and get Saucestream off the ground quickly to make the most of the market opportunity. Mr Worton explained: “Haines Watts just got our business straight away and understood our personalities, which are big drivers in Grillstream and Saucestream. As owner-managers your day is full of getting stuff done, from the core design and development work to trying to work out how the hell you are going to sell it.

“The last thing you need to try to do is try to understand the world of finance and all the different tax incentives and funding routes we could embark on. We just needed someone to step forward and take control of that.”

This is exactly what Haines Watts has done, firstly completing the Patent Box application on both products and, more recently, securing more than £20,000 of R&D Tax savings that the entrepreneurs have put towards development and tooling costs to get Saucestream up and running.

It has also ensured that both firms have moved to digital accounting, installing Zero software to help with stock management and to give everyone greater visibility on purchases, sales, investments, and future opportunities.

Haines Watts’ Daniel Montgomery said: “Peter and Ian are two fantastic innovators and have a track record of bringing new products to market successfully. We’ve started with compliance and making the business more efficient, and we have then used the expertise of our pan-regional teams to maximise Patent Box, R&D tax credits and, more recently, postponed VAT accounting.

“The latter is important as there is a lot of up-front costs associated with manufacturing products for sale and then a lag in the time it takes to sell the units and recoup the revenue. We can ease some of the pain with this clever approach to VAT.”