Duncan Bannatyne is associated with the Scottish leisure and health-club business Bannatyne Group.
Bannatyne is a Scottish entrepreneur, author and philanthropist. His business interests expanded into health clubs, hotels and spas, and the Bannatyne Group became the best-known company carrying his name. This background gave him practical experience in operating customer-facing businesses with substantial premises and staffing costs.
He was one of the original investors on the British version of Dragon's Den. In the den, he became known for examining whether entrepreneurs understood their numbers and whether a proposed business could deliver a realistic return.
The Bannatyne Group should not be confused with the investor's television role itself. It is a separate business group connected to his wider entrepreneurial career, while Dragon's Den is the BBC programme on which he invested in selected pitches.