John walked away empty-handed, and even the show’s host, Evan Davies, said the den had been hard on him.
Despite not impressing the Dragons, HandiScoop has generated £1.47 million in sales since 2011 and sells approximately £250,000 worth of product annually.
One of his clients is Pets At Home, which distributes the scoops in around 400 locations, with a few pallets bought every week by the committed client.
When a colleague says that Nationwide – seen from their window over the road – is not closing branches, West replies: ‘We’re not Nationwide, are we?’
A voiceover at the end says: ‘Unlike the big banks, we’re not closing our branches,’ while on-screen text reads: ‘Publicly shared branch closures at Lloyds, bank of Scotland/Halifax, Natwest, Barclays, Santander and HSBC.’
The radio ad featured a similar conversation, with the colleague saying: ‘Boss, news from Nationwide,’ and ‘They’ve just confirmed they’re keeping branches open,’ before a voiceover said: ‘Unlike the big banks, we’re not closing our branches.’
The press ad featured the text: ‘Going, Going, Nowhere’ and ‘Unlike the big banks, we’re not closing our branches.’ Small print at the bottom of the ad said: ‘If we have a branch in your town or city, we’ll still be there until at least 2026.’
Nationwide pledged to not shut any branches in towns or cities where there were no other branches in 2019 and 2023.
The bank told the ASA that it had closed 20 branches in the past 18 months, including two in 2023, but it still had the most branches of any of the ten banks and had closed the least percentage of its estate.
They also sent an article from consumer magazine Which? that suggested Nationwide as a building society for consumers who valued face-to-face interaction.
The ASA said viewers were likely to miss qualifications within the ads that bank’s Branch Promise would be in place until ‘at least 2026’.
Santander has shuttered fewer branches than Nationwide in the 12 months before to the ad campaign. At the time of the commercial, Santander had not announced any prospective branch closures.
The ASA said: ‘We acknowledged that over a 10-year period, in comparison to other financial institutions, Nationwide had closed the smallest percentage of any financial institution’s estate.
‘However, we noted that they had nevertheless closed 20% of their estate, which equated to 152 branches, and we considered that was a significant number that had been permanently closed.
‘We also understood that since Nationwide had launched their original Branch Promise, in the 18 months since July 2022 they had permanently closed 20 branches. Of those 20, 14 had been closed in the 12 months preceding the campaign, with two of them having been closed in 2023.’
The ASA concluded: ‘As above, we understood that Nationwide’s Branch Promise was only valid until 2026, at which time Nationwide could begin to close branches permanently.
‘We considered those factors relating to previous, recent branch closures and the effect on future branches in the long term were likely to be significant to consumers when making decisions about whether to choose Nationwide, in the context of the claims made in the ads that Nationwide were not closing their branches.
‘Because we considered that consumers would understand from the ads that Nationwide would not be closing branches in the long-term future and that they had not recently closed branches, we concluded that the ads were misleading.’
The watchdog ruled that the ads must not appear again in their current form, adding: ‘We told Nationwide Building Society not to mislead in relation to the closure of their branches.’
A Nationwide spokesman said: ‘We recognise the ASA’s decision and are delighted to have the opportunity to make even clearer our now extended branch promise to keep every branch open until the start of 2028.
‘The investment we have made to keep branches open means we now have more than any other brand and are the last one standing in more than 90 communities.’