Page 351 - James Caan - The Real Deal

33 · Into the Den

‘Is this what we have agreed, Peter?’
He looked at it. ‘Yes, it is.’
‘Take it away and tomorrow morning, when you’ve given it
some thought, sign it and send it back to me so we can move it
forward.’
By the time I got to the studio the next day, Peter Moule had
faxed it to the production company’soffice. Peter and Theo were,
frankly, gobsmacked.
A couple of weeks later I was in the South of France and trying
to work out who I knew who could help ChocBox. In twenty-five
years in business I’ve come across people in all sorts of industries,
and I remembered that an old YPO contact of mine, Richard Rose,
used to be in the electrical business. I called him up and told him
about the product.
‘Can we meet up about this?’ I asked.
‘Well, I’m in the South of France at the moment so . . .’
‘Whereabouts?’
‘Monte Carlo.’
‘I’m in Cannes. What are you doing this morning?’
‘Having coffee with you!’
Richard knew exactly who we needed to talk to. GET are the
largest distributors of electrical components in the UK, and he set
up a meeting for us.
The chief exec of GET took one look at the ChocBox and said
that Wickes and B&Q would be selling them all day long and he
offered to distribute them exclusively.
‘What do I get for letting you have it exclusively?’
‘I’ll guarantee you a million units a year.’
‘We’re already selling a million units a year. Give me something
I haven’t got.’
‘How about two million units a year?’
I thought about it. ‘For an exclusive deal I need five million.’
By the time we left the meeting we had a deal for five million

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