Pizza brand to pitch on this week’s Dragons’ Den

Doughboys Pizza co-founders, twin brothers Luke and Owen Buckmaster, are set to appear on BBC’s Dragons’ Den, with their episode airing tomorrow (16 January 2025) at 8pm on BBC One.

In the episode, filmed on 3 June 2024, the pair pitched their artisanal pizza business to celebrity Dragons Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Steven Bartlett, Touker Suleyman and Sara Davies.

Doughboys Pizza was launched in early 2020 and was inspired by the brothers’ desire to solve what they saw as a common problem: the lack of high-quality, handmade Italian pizzas in foodservice. They partnered with a family pizza producer in Italy to introduce their handmade pizzas to the UK market and, despite setbacks during the Covid-19 pandemic, the business has since generated accumulative sales of nearly £4m.

Luke told The Caterer that the twins’ intention behind the Dragons’ Den pitch was to partner “with someone who has the experience and connections to help us grow”.

“Owen and I have always been fascinated by business and grew up watching Dragons’ Den from a very young age. We were first approached about the show in 2021, however, at the time, we were struggling with the adverse effects of the pandemic and the business wasn’t in a great place.

“So, when the opportunity arose for us to appear on the show, we jumped at it. With the business doing well, it felt like a perfect time and opportunity to share our passion for Doughboys and hopefully try and win over a Dragon – because who wouldn’t want a to have a Dragon on board?”

He said if their pitch proved successful, Doughboys Pizza would use the investment to expand its team and focus on sales and marketing, areas the firm hadn’t yet been able to invest in “given that most of our growth so far has been organic”.

“With the right mentor on board, we’re confident we can make Doughboys Pizza even bigger and better,” he said.

Doughboys Pizza already supplies thousands of venues across the UK, including Arsenal Football Stadium.

Luke said: “We wanted to bring genuine Italian pizzas, as you’d expect to be served in a pizzeria to the UK, but in a readymade format. What started as a small idea that we didn’t initially take too seriously has grown into something far bigger than we imagined.”

The Buckmasters don’t have university degrees but said their work ethic and determination were key to their success. Owen added: “We’ve sacrificed a lot to build Doughboys, and Dragons’ Den is a chance to share our story and inspire others, no matter their age or experience.”

The episode will be available to view here after broadcast.