Peterborough's Up The Garden Bath celebrates boost from former Dragons' Den star Theo Paphitis

​Peterborough recycling venture Up The Garden Bath has a new reason to celebrate after its founders finally met up with the former Dragons’ Den star who three years ago handed the then fledgling enterprise a lifeline.

The environmental and educational community project was one of a select number of businesses to win support from Theo Paphitis when it secured a retweet from him to the more than 500,000 Twitter and Instagram followers of the entrepreneur’s weekly Small Business Sunday #SBS initiative.

The sudden new profile injected an extra lease of life into the business which was in danger of closure as custom dried up during the coronavirus lockdown.

The Up The Garden Bath founders Kez Hayes-Palmer and Dave Poulton were finally praised in person by Theo when they collected their winner’s certificate at his annual Small Business Sunday Conference held at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham.

Kez said: “It has been three years since we won and it was an amazing honour to finally meet Theo and get an opportunity to tap into his knowledge and discuss our work in more detail.

She said: “The best tip we had from Theo was ‘Don't be afraid to dream big and don't be a busy fool.’

Kez added: “We’d only been in business a few weeks when we won our #SBS award and it came totally out of the blue.

"We started the project just before the start of the pandemic from our back garden.

"In the last three years we have installed more than 50 of our upcycled bathtub planters into facilities across Cambridgeshire, delivering our educational workshops to more than 10,000 people of varying ages and abilities.

“It is great to have support from Theo and to be recognised for our hard work and commitment to improving communities.”

Dave added: “The presentation was cancelled in 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions and we were unable to attend in 2022 due to ill health.

“It was a great chance to network with other small business owners and get an insight into business practices.”

Retail magnate Theo, who is chairman of Ryman Stationery, said: “We are thrilled to welcome new #SBS members every week and highlight just how important it is to support our small businesses here in the UK.

"My vision is that everyone who has ever won an #SBS retweet from me becomes part of a friendly club; like-minded individuals who can share successes and learnings.”

How can you get a retweet from Theo?

Anyone looking for a retweet from Theo should tweet on Twitter or do an Instagram post to

him about their business on Sunday between 5pm and 7.30pm and include the hashtag

#SBS.

Six lucky businesses are retweeted every Monday at 8pm and then invited to enter their profile on the new website, attend the annual #SBS networking event and take advantage of the networking opportunities.