Is Lid Lifters Still in Business? (2026 Update)
Still after Lid Lifters?We have not confirmed a current listing, so this searches Amazon for you.
Look for Lid Lifters on AmazonFull story →Lawrence Webb and Frank Drewett pitched Lid Lifters, a foot-operated gadget that removes the need to bend down and grab a grimy bin lid, wanting £50,000 for half the business, and reached a deal with Peter Jones.
A Patent Predating The Pitch By A Decade
The pair had actually held rights to the design since the late 1990s, well over ten years before reaching the studio, and had already moved a modest amount of stock before pitching, suggesting a considered idea rather than a rushed one.
Jones came around after some initial doubt about whether something this simple could support a proper business, ultimately investing in exchange for a stake tied to the patent itself.
Real Traction, Then A Long Silence
A distributor picked up the product for a period afterward, supplying retailers in batches of two dozen at a go, with dated activity covering a handful of years following the broadcast.
The original dedicated website mentioned in early coverage no longer appears reliably live, a common pattern for small hardware businesses that never scale beyond one supplier relationship.
Buying One Today
The gadget, or something extremely close to it, still surfaces from time to time on general marketplaces, which points to the underlying concept having outlived the original television moment in some form.
If you want one, treat a marketplace search as your best bet rather than assuming an official company website is still taking orders.