Dorset's Kay set to step into the Dragons Den (From Dorset Echo)

Dorset's Kay set to step into the Dragons Den

7:40am Tuesday 25th August 2009 in

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DORSET businesswoman Kay Russell is to step into the Dragons’ Den in search of riches.

The entrepreneur will appear on the BBC2 show at 9pm tomorrow looking for an investment in her sports product Physicool.

Horse enthusiast Kay first developed the aid, an ice-cold press that works even when stored at room temperature, to be used on horses before creating a version for sportsmen.

Kay, originally from Weymouth who now lives in Corscombe, near Beaminster, said she was inspired to create Physicool after seeing similar products in use in sporting events overseas.

She said: “I saw people using rapidly evaporating alcohol pads for cooling in the US and thought it would be a very good way of cooling down horses that have been competing in events.

“I’ve got a lot of horses, so I decided to develop a product that would be fit for the equine market.

“After a couple of years of work and investment I came up with a product called Equi-N-icE, which was launched in 2002.

“The product has been selling well all over the world in Australia, America and Europe and in the UK.

“After that, however, I found that a lot of the riders were using the pads on themselves, so I thought, ‘let’s get a product on to the human market’.”

After another few years, Kay had developed Physicool, which was launched at the London Marathon in 2007 where she said it ‘went down very well’ with runners.

Kay said: “The first year of selling the product was slow and steady but from November last year the product has really started to take off and we’re now selling it in India, Australia, Chile and all over.”

Following the new product’s success, Kay, 46, was contacted by the Dragons’ Den production team in May.

She said: “I just had a phone call out of the blue saying they thought it was a good product and would I like to pitch it to the dragons.

“I was surprised but after a couple of days of deliberation I decided in the end to go for it.”

After going through a preliminary pitching process, Kay travelled to Pinewood Studios in Buckingham-shire, where she had to endure an agonising three-day wait before she got to stand in the den and make her pitch for real.

She said: “It was very nerve- racking – I felt like a rabbit caught in the headlights.”

To find out how Kay did you will have to watch Dragons’ Den at 9pm tomorrow on BBC2.

You can also read more about Kay’s experiencing of pitching her product to the dragons in Thursday’s Dorset Echo.