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Somerset farmer Andy Fussell has shown that The Dragons aren’t always right. Andy has made some bold, brave and strategic decisions without the help of Dragons Den – he was turned down by them in 2010. He has chosen to go the whole hog and get his product out there by committing to TV advertising – firstly to increase awareness of his own brand of rapeseed oil and secondly to support the growing British rapeseed oil industry. Fussels Fine Foods has led the way with the very first TV advertising campaign by a rapeseed oil brand which, with a week still to run, has reached millions of people and resulted in thousands of new hits to Fussels’ website. What’s more, the advert showed Andy in his own fields, talking about his own oil, not a carefully chosen bunch of attractive young actors jumping about on hay bales.

Since Fussels launched in 2007 and Andy’s appearance on the BBC’s Dragons Den in 2010, the company has grown year-on-year and has now quadrupled its value from when Duncan Bannatyne and Deborah Meaden turned down the chance to invest in 2010. Founder, Andy Fussell is committed to everything he does and the quality of rapeseed oil he produces; from which he makes a range of rapeseed oil products. From growing and nurturing the crops, to harvesting, drying and storing the seed, freshly cold-pressing it in small batches just once to ensure all the goodness and natural flavours are preserved and then finally bottling the oil. Everything is grown and pressed on his family’s farm in Rode, Somerset, which is part of Natural England’s Environmental Stewardship Scheme.