Dragons dig quinoa!

Local Ontario Quinoa Successful Against the Dragons on CBC’s Dragons’ Den

On Wednesday, March 11^th, Katan Kitchens took on the Dragons on Dragons’ Den on CBC Television. There was an overwhelming amount of interest from the Dragons, but in the end, one Dragon came out on top, striking a deal with Jamie Draves, CEO of Katan Kitchens.

Jamie Draves, CEO of Katan Kitchens makes his successful pitch on CBC’s Dragons Den on March 11th 2015

Katan Kitchens entered ‘The Den’ to seek funds for the development of a gluten-free processing facility in Northern Ontario in order to clean their quinoa varieties called Quinta quinoa for sale in North American and global markets. With four years of industry-supported research, the company has developed quinoa varieties that are higher in nutritional quality, purity, and taste than that of quinoa imported from South America. Katan Kitchens’ proposition brought high interest from four of the five Dragons, actually creating a short lived bidding war between two groups of Dragons. “It is tough to make those kind of split second decisions where the offers from both sides are positive, but quite different. Fortunately, we were well prepared going in and knew what we wanted.”  Jamie turned down a half million offer by two of the Dragons, and accepted a $200k investment from Vikram Vij.  “I would have loved to work with Jim and Michael, as I have heard very positive things about them as people, but Vikram offered an opportunity to quickly penetrate into the food industry, including the functional food ingredient industry, at a lower percentage of the company.”

Katan’s plans have expanded since taping the show, and they are currently focused on a multi-crop facility in Northern Ontario.  According to Draves, they are ready to start building the facility in the Cochrane District this spring, provided they get approval on some government funding.  The facility could employ up to 50 people over 5 years, and would become a local buyer for several local rotational crops.

Follow the company on Twitter @KatanKitchens, @QuintaQuinoa,

For more information on the company, please contact:

Jamie Draves — President and CEO, Katan Kitchens

Tel: 647-932-6930

Email: jdraves@katan.ca

www.katan.ca, www.quintaquinoa.ca

DRAGONS’ DEN is the highest-rated Canadian unscripted program, with an average audience of more than 1.2 million Canadians each week. Enter the Dragons’ Den, where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business concepts and products to a panel of Canadian business moguls who have the cash and the know-how to make it happen. In addition to its success on-air, Dragons’ Den is also a hit online, boasting an active and engaged online community averaging more than 650,000 page views per month. Full episodes and exclusive behind-the-scenes content can be viewed at cbc.ca/dragonsden. Dragons’ Den is filmed at the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto and airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on CBC Television.