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In Conversation With...Sara Davies
Pushing The
E n ve lope r
Continuing to attract millions of viewers, the recent series of Dragons’ Den has just drawn to a close, with the BBC now on the scout for the next clutch of entrepreneurs who are prepared to face the Dragons. PG caught up with ‘Dragon’ Sara Davies MBE, not only an impressive entrepreneur herself, but someone whose business empire was founded on greeting cards. Having been on air for almost 20 years, Dragons’ Den has proved a winning concept - plucky entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to a fearsome den of super successful business people who may or may not invest in their respective venture. Since 2019, among them is Sara Davies MBE, whose warm ebullient nature is matched by her innate entrepreneurial nous, which can be traced back to her first big break, which is inextricably linked to greeting cards.
“I’ve always been ambitious, driven and have always tried to work really hard. Even at school, I was never the smartest in the class, but I would always work really hard to get good grades. When I decided to go to university to study business management, I knew that I wanted to own a business one day, but I assumed that I would end up running the family painting and decorating shop in Coundon. That plan changed, however, when I had to do a year’s industry placement,” Sara revealed. Fortuitously, Sara’s placement was with a local craft company in County Durham, which
involved her going to lots of crafty trade and consumer shows to demonstrate and sell the products that the company made. It was during this time that Sara spotted a gap in the market that was very much linked to the nation’s love of greeting cards, notably making them. “They were so many people creating these lovely handmade cards and then putting them into ill-fitting, boring white envelopes, which they weren’t happy with and I couldn’t blame them!” admitted Sara. With so many products crafting products already out there in the market, Sara was “very surprised that a product which could be used to create bespoke envelopes didn’t exist. I knew that (with a little bit of help) I could create a really ground-breaking product to fix this problem. So, I roped in my dad, who was an ex-engineer, for some help and together, we created The Enveloper.” This was to lead the way for Sara’s Crafter’s Companion brand, which has
Top: The Enveloper, Sara’s early invention which is still going strong under Crafter’s Companion. Far left: Sara Davies (far right) with her fellow Dragons, (left-right) Steven Bartlett, Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden and Touker Suleyman. Inset: Sara in crafting mode.
28 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE