What 50+ Years in Retail Teaches You with Dragon’s Den Investor Touker Suleyman | RTS 2026

Hello everyone, this is Omnitalk Retail.

I'm Chris Walton and I'm coming to you live from the Retail Technology show in London from the Vusion podcast studio.

And joining me is Tukur Suleiman.

He is the current Dragon's Den investor, which for those listening back home in the US is the equivalent of Shark Tank here in the uk.

Tukar, thanks for joining us.

Tell our audience at home about yourself and also about what brings you to the retail Technology show.

Well, I've been in retail and manufacturing now for over 50 years.

Yeah.

Shows off my age and I've got approaching about 40 investments, all in product related, tech related, retail related.

And today I've come here actually to see 500 exhibitors all trying to sell you a product, an idea, a solution in the retail world.

And I'm just taken aback.

We all know that AI now is playing a big part and it's all about the customer journey, the retention, it's all about technology.

How technology can enhance your brand, enhance your sales, enhance the longevity of keeping a customer.

That's really important.

Yeah.

And you literally just came off stage too, right?

Yep.

Yeah.

And so what messages did you share around everything you just said?

Like, did you have any key points that you drove home?

I think the question really is the key points, I mean, is if you're a brand, it's all about a, you know, having the brand story, having great design, great product, great quality, great value and great customer service.

They are the key points.

And of course, the other key points I spoke about is every brand not to realize that, you know, cash is king.

You can't run a business without cash, full stop.

Yeah, yeah.

You need to have cash.

Yeah, yeah.

And so basically the point is you.

Got to have a purpose and you've got to have a financially viable business that you're running with good cash flow.

I think so.

I think, you know, when you start a business, you got to start it small, try and get your first investment for family and friends.

When you've proven a concept, then you can go out and raise money because you've proven it.

And I know that it's difficult at the beginning.

However, unless you've got a mind blowing idea that is very new and you've got people that are willing to back you at the very beginning.

Otherwise you've got to prove it.

You know, there's no free lunches out there.

Yeah, right.

And to that point, I mean, you've.

Made millions of millions of dollars in investments over the 10 years you've been on Dragon's Den.

So looking back over the years, what's.

The single biggest mistake you see entrepreneurs making when they, they walk through that door?

Not maybe in their pitch, but, you.

Know, in running their day to day businesses to the point that you were making?

Yeah, I think, I think the problem today is that a lot of entrepreneurs are infatuated with marketing.

Okay.

They throw a lot of money at marketing, find out it's all gone, they made the mistake, never start again.

You know, I also think that, you know, anybody can start a brand, you just got to do it better.

Better quality, better value for the consumer.

You know, you've got to have those key strengths within your brand.

You know, in my days, 50 years, there was no technology, there was no Internet, you know, there was no mobile phones.

Right.

Very different today.

You've got a lot of tools to pick from out there.

There's 500 businesses all want your money.

It's like a piece of cake.

And you've got to pick very carefully.

And the most important thing, I come back for the same thing.

Keep an eye on your cash, keep an eye on your burn, because that's really important.

Right.

And back then the proof points were.

Probably easier to tell.

How you were doing as a business, how healthy you were, versus how easily you can throw things at marketing, to your point, in today's day and age as well.

So I want to ask you another question because one of the things that in my research that I heard you say is that or in general you prefer buying struggling businesses over large chains.

Is that true?

What do those provide?

I think the fact is that I'm probably somebody who can go into a business, identify the problems, pull the right levers and turn it around.

Yeah, so that's my speciality.

I looked at a few businesses recently made an offer, an American business called Claire's here, which didn't go through.

When I looked at it again, I thought probably dodged a bullet here, but that's my specialty.

I can look at a business, look at what they do and say, how can I do it better?

Very difficult.

But when you're buying a big business and it's very successful, that you need a lot of money.

And if you're using your personal money rather than a VC money or corporate money, it's different.

Yeah.

So that's my speciality.

Oh, got it.

Okay.

All right.

So you've seen, I mean, 50 years you said, right?

Yep.

You've seen the British high street from every angle imaginable.

I have to believe.

What's your prognosis for it going forward, do you think it's still gonna thin out?

Do you think we're gonna see the.

Same amount of change as is it going to expand?

Like, what's your view of it?

Look, I think the UK is, we have some great retailers here.

Yeah.

You know, undoubtedly.

And I think where in the 80s and 90s we were far ahead of the US the US now overtaken us in retail.

However, I see retail consolidating a little bit.

Okay.

I think you've got a dozen big players retail wise.

Physical stores, you've got a lot of small boutique stores.

And I think we're going to get a lot of foreign brands coming in.

And it evolves.

One closes, two opens.

Two closes, one open.

It evolves.

I think where we're going to see a lot of change is online.

I think after Covid, we all thought physical stores are finished.

Quite the opposite.

I think more and more consumers want to go into physical stores, want to feel and touch, want that experience.

And I think the challenge is marketing costs.

All the costs that go along with running an online business are increasing.

And that's going to be the challenge.

How do you market your product without giving it all to meta, all to Google, and how to get that CRM working so that your customers are coming back, they're satisfied, and you've acquired those customers and you've got longevity with them.

So I see that physical stores, rents have risen a lot in the uk.

I think they'll come back because we're in a retail recession at the moment.

Online is going to be the challenge.

Right, Right.

That's where I see the problem.

And having those stores, if I'm reading between the lines too, I think you're saying too effectively that having those stores is a way to personalize that connection with the brand too.

That helps get around some of those marketing costs as well.

So we spoke about, I'm lucky enough.

I own the IP for lipstick.

Okay.

So I'm launching lipstick stores in September.

Okay.

And so the idea there is, how do I market lipstick online in stores without spending a lot of money?

So that's for ambassadors gifting.

So.

So I think every CEO, every Monday when they look at the figures, why are we spending so much in marketing?

That seems to be the issue.

And you've got, you've got your metas, you've got your Googles who are just creaming it.

And I think until they're challenged, they are getting slightly challenged through influencers, they're getting slightly challenged through better CRM.

Retention of customers.

That's what it's about.

Trying to not spend that much on marketing and spend it in different formats.

Guerrilla marketing.

So that's what you'd be doing as.

A CEO on a Monday morning.

You'd be looking at that line item specifically and being like, hey, we got.

To find more out of this.

It's just the way to get in front of it.

Unfortunately, every small brand, every small entrepreneur is having the same problem.

And I talk to a lot of big CEOs and they all say this, how do we reduce our marketing spend?

Right, right.

All right, so let's.

So that's the high street.

Let's go global now.

Is it the same concern globally?

Like what do you think is going to have the biggest impact on the winners and losers?

And then I'll let you go winners and losers here globally, as we look.

Forward, say for the next, you know, 10 years, in the next decade, what.

Do you think it's going to be?

Look, I think that in Europe there's a lot of markets which are not serviced properly.

Countries like Poland, all those Eastern European countries who are now having proper economies and you've got this middle class coming in.

So I think brands will be franchising into those countries.

I think the Middle east, there's been a lot of franchise in there and that will consolidate.

I think with the problems we've got at the moment with the war, not sure what's going to happen.

I think there's a two way traffic between American brands want to come into the uk.

UK brands want to go to the us.

My advice there is always have a local partner, knows the climate there.

Never try and do it on your own.

Always.

Yeah, Yep.

How do you think marketplaces are going.

To continue to play out in the online sphere?

I think big retailers who've got big databases are now creating marketplaces.

It's another way of income without having the inventory cost.

So one of my brands, the brand called Finery, we're big on the Marks and Spencer's marketplace and that way we don't spend any money on marketing.

Ms. Do for us.

So I think marketplaces is definitely a way forward because as department stores close because they're no longer fashionable.

Marketplaces, the next way forward.

Yeah, that's interesting because I heard recently at a conference too that like marketplaces is e commerce.

At the end of the day, that's where the giant amount of volume comes.

From and the growth is coming from.

But if you think going back to Marks and Spencer's, they've got 20 odd million on their database.

I'm sure in the US people like Nordstrom or Bloomingdale have got a lot more than that.

Yeah, right, right.

All right, well, thank you, man.

Thank you very much for joining us today.

It was a real pleasure getting to speak with you.

A real legend in the, in the uk and Dragon's Den investor Tukar Suleiman.

Thanks for joining me.

Again, thanks to the Retail Technology show and to Fusion for sponsoring our coverage here at the conference.

And as always, on behalf of all of us at omnitalk, as always, be careful out there.