A Garage, a Pandemic Pause and the Dragons: Luke and Owen Buckmaster and Doughboys Pizza

Twin brothers Luke and Owen Buckmaster don’t have degrees, and they’re happy to say so. They grew up in Cox Green, near Maidenhead, went to the local secondary school, skipped A-levels and took apprenticeships instead. “We didn’t study A-levels, we got apprenticeships and wanted to get into the workplace,” Luke explained. Both left school at 16, and Luke admits their grades were very average, but says they always had good business instincts.

Helping a friend’s pub

The idea came from a friend. He ran a pub and was struggling to find chefs and serve a decent menu. The brothers saw a gap for premium, ready-made frozen pizzas for pubs and restaurants. They teamed up with a family pizza maker in Italy to bring handmade Italian pizzas to the UK in a ready-made form.

Luke admits expectations were low. “We just thought selling pizzas would be bit of a laugh,” he said. They paid for it with savings from hospitality and supermarket jobs.

Stopped by Covid

The timing was terrible. Just before the pandemic, the brothers had landed a distribution deal with food wholesaler Bidfood and signed their first pub. Then Covid shut hospitality down, and they had to put the business on hold.

For around 18 months, they worked in supermarkets instead, Owen full-time at Tesco and Luke between Tesco and M&S. Eventually, their accountants asked whether they wanted to revive the business or close it. The government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme gave them the chance to restart. Luke later recalled that when they were first approached about Dragons’ Den, the business “wasn’t in a great place” because of the pandemic.

From mum’s garage to a warehouse

The relaunch was hands-on. The twins turned their mother’s garage into a distribution hub and sent pizzas to venues by overnight courier. They soon outgrew it, moving into commercial space and then a 4,000-square-foot warehouse, where they put up the shelving themselves and bought a second-hand forklift they named Franny.

Customers followed. Doughboys grew to serve more than 1,000 venues, including Chelsea and Arsenal football clubs, the NHS, Holiday Inn and Greene King pubs. In 2023, it moved into retail with listings at Ocado in the UK and Spinneys in the UAE. The Guardian later named its Margherita the best supermarket version.

Into the Den

In January 2025, the brothers appeared on BBC One’s Dragons’ Den, asking for £90,000 for 10% of the business. Three Dragons made offers, and Peter Jones, who is from Maidenhead, won the deal. Luke said they hadn’t gone in for the money but to find a Dragon who could help them grow.

The story then took a twist. Although they accepted on air, the brothers later decided not to go ahead because of contractual complexities, and say they hope to work with Jones in the future. The exposure still helped. When the episode aired, searches for Doughboys on Ocado jumped by 1,469% week on week. The brothers also launched DIY pizza kits for home delivery.

Award-winning growth

Turnover has grown from £320,000 in the first year to a projected £2.75 million in 2025, and revenue since launch has passed £6 million. Luke says the company has been entirely self-funded so far, although the brothers are now in talks about a seven-figure investment round.

In November 2025, aged 25, the twins were named Young Entrepreneurs of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. “We did not expect to win it at all,” Luke said.

The lesson

Luke is realistic about the challenges. He says running a business today is “unbelievably tough”, with rising costs and competition from companies with huge budgets. Owen hopes their story will inspire others “no matter their age or experience”. Their journey shows that a pause isn’t the same as failure, and that a good deal sometimes means knowing when to walk away.