THE Wye Valley businesswoman behind an eco-friendly soap enterprise cleaned up on BBC's Dragons Den by wowing all five entrepreneurs and winning a £50,000 investment.

It's not the first time Monmouth-based SNOAP owner Lisa Hicks has won the backing of the Dragons either, impressing the show's former star Theo Paphitis on his Small Business Sunday network in 2023.

The mum-of-three, who made her pitch alongside husband Antony, came up with the idea of a solid soap dispenser during lockdown – a plastic-free alternative to liquid soap designed to eliminate single-use waste.

Lisa said her dad, who passed away just before filming, said his "work ethic" gave her the push to go on the show.

“We got the date for filming and my dad, very sadly, suddenly died. That was personally very tough, but the personal turmoil took away the nerves of walking into the den. My dad would be absolutely bursting with pride,” she said.

"If he’d thought he had stopped me doing something that could benefit myself, and my family, I have three children... he would have been cross," she said.

"My dad's work ethic and my mother's actually, is very, very strong, and their belief in me is very strong as well.

"It was a really tough, really challenging thing to do. But, having experienced the loss of my dearly beloved dad, walking into five Dragons felt somewhat easier to be honest," she said.

Haberdashers' Monmouth School, which their son attended and where she is a Young Enterprise advisor, has already installed the dispensers across its site – making it the first in the UK to adopt the green solution to plastic waste.

And she revealed that she came up with the idea when her children were at home during lockdown, realising that they needed to reduce single-use plastics, especially soap bottles, in their everyday life.

"I made lots of changes around the house for more eco-friendly alternatives, but one area we really struggled with was solid bars for hand, hair and body washing.

"Nobody wanted to share the bar, and it was really impractical."

Out of that came SNOAP which started a bidding war in the Dragon's Den, with the couple ultimately opting for a joint £50,000 bid for a 7.5% stake from Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden.

Lisa says her motivation is not money, but the positive impact her product can make.

“What people don’t realise is the average household goes through 64 bottles of bodywash every year. This switch is not only reducing waste from bottles, but it’s clearing waterways, and it is better for your skin. SNOAP does not cost the earth,” she said.

SNOAP is also a part of the global ‘Buy Women Built’ group, which consists of businesses founded by women.

And speaking ahead of last Saturday’s International Women’s Day, Lisa said: “It shocked me when I realised less than 2% of government funding for small businesses go to women founders...

“We have got to lift women up in the business world... But I do think the tide is turning as more women enter business. It’s women supporting each other that will turn it.”