He came up with the idea for Trunki while he was a student at Northumbria University – while researching for a university competition he found the range of children’s luggage uninspiring and set about designing his own solution.
Rodeo, as it was then known, was born but it would take several years for it to enter the market, during which time Rob worked as a product designer for a number of major brands.
Rob then went on Dragons’ Den in 2006 with the intention of securing investment for his product, but the experience proved unfavourable as Theo Paphitis accidentally snapped a piece of the suitcase off, Deborah Meaden declared there was no market for the case, and Rob left with nothing in an episode the BBC entitled Wheelie Rubbish.
Rob would end up having the last laugh, however, as his company Magmatic Ltd bounced back from this setback to take the suitcase market by story – by August 2008, over 120,000 Trunkis had been sold worldwide in over 20 countries. This has now increased to over 100 countries.
And in a memorable twist, Rob went up to collect the Growing Business Award from New Product Company of the Year, and passed Dragon Theo on the way down the stage as he was going up to getting his award!
Rob is a fantastic choice for keynote and after-dinner speaking duties as he came from humble roots and suffered a number of setbacks before overcoming adversity and making it big.
