You might have heard of Islington Mill based tablet case makers BUKcase, they got given a bit of a hard time on Dragons’ Den a while ago. But despite any set backs founder Sonny isn’t letting that get in the way of improving his products and pushing the brand forward. We caught up with him to talk about his side of the Dragons’ Den story, idea behind and the future of BUKcase.
MF: So what was the idea behind the Bukcase product?
Sonny: I found it hard to find a case I liked when I was buying one for my iPad. Other cases didn’t have the quality I was looking for for a reasonable price and I wanted something that would blend in with my Moleskines. Since I couldn’t really find anything like this and, since I was a product designer, it seemed to make sense to try to fill this gap in the market.
MF: You’ve tried to come up with a unique manufacturing process for your cases. Tell us a bit more?
Sonny: We make BUKcases using a traditional bookbinding process that’s been practiced for hundreds of years. I felt that these types of skills were being lost and it would offer a higher quality product if we were to perfect and use these techniques. All our cases are hand made by a team of Master bookbinders with over 80 years experience and all of our materials are locally sourced to reduce our carbon footprint.
MF: It’s a great idea, so what went wrong on Dragons’ Den?
Sonny: I didn’t even watch it, I couldn’t. But when I asked friends and family about the positive bits, they’d never seen them. Yes, parts of it went badly but not all of it. That’s just the way TV works though. They found a good story to latch on to and edited to suit them. If anything it only strengthened our resolve to improve the product. We’ve come along way since then.
If anything it only strengthened our resolve to improve the product. We’ve come along way since then.
MF: So, what’s next for BUKcase?
Sonny:We’re improving the product all the time, we’ve just introduced a new personalised monogram service to make your case even more unique and we’re also constantly expanding our line to include more and more devices.
MF: Thanks Sonny. Good luck with BUKcase in the future.
