It's takeaway for Natasha as Helen, Tom, Jim and Susan make the Apprentice final

Natasha, who has a degree in hospitality, was fired in last night’s semi-final of The apprentice, where the teams were tasked with starting their own fast food restaurant.

‘You have a degree in hospitality, understanding food and all that stuff’, said Sugar. ‘It was a long time ago’, replied Natasha, despite boasting to her team mates about her BA Hons at the beginning of the task and telling them she had run her own restaurant at uni.

‘You learnt fundamental things in your degree’, stated Sugar. Natasha said that she hadn’t been interested in the food side of things and honed in on the areas she liked.

‘It’s like doing a first aid degree and not being able to help someone (sick) in the street’, said Sugar. ‘I didn’t like doing resuscitation but had to do it.’

He added, ‘You started off as a house on fire, but I’ve found you lack lustre in the last few weeks. You’re fired.’

Lord Sugar told Karen and Nick that Natasha not being able to handle the process was a weakness and shown she couldn’t be his business partner.

Natasha, Jim (PM) and Susan went head to head in the boardroom after loosing the task with a miserable score of 4/10 for their Caracas Mexican restaurant. Whilst team Logic, Helen (PM) and Tom, earned 7/10 for their traditional British pie and mash takeaway called ‘Mypy’, putting the pair in Sunday’s final. Industry experts judged the teams on their customer service, standard of menu, their restaurant’s brand I-D and it’s potential longevity.

In the boardroom Sugar asked team Venture where their business plan was. Susan admitted they didn’t have one and hadn’t though about profit margins, proven when Jim’s sums failed to total up, coming out with a figure of 4,000 rather than 400, after an industry expert asked how much money they expected to make over a lunchtime.

Sugar also criticised the teams for slow service after waiting ten minutes for his ‘fast food’. PM Jim, who the girls ganged up on, blamed it on the equipment.

Lord Sugar wasn’t convinced and told Jim he had the manner, which some call charisma, which sometimes is a good trait in business, but it has its downfall. He added that he liked Jim’s spirit and was putting him through to the final.

Susan, he said, didn’t get on with too may people, which could be down to her being ruthless.

‘Not many people have a good word to say about you, but you’ve achieved a lot. Susan you’re in the final’, he said.

Helen, Tom, Jim and Susan face a grilling in Sunday’s final when they hand over and are questioned about their business plans.

The Apprentice: Zoe is fired for crumbling under pressure.

Zoe was ordered to leave the competition last night having failed as PM of Logic to get any orders for the team’s biscuit BixMix, whereas Venture, whose PM was Helen, sold £800,000 units to Asda for their little stars biscuits for kids.

Zoe’s error? Not going to the factory to make the product and leaving Tom and Melody to it.

Lord Sugar told Zoe, ‘I’m looking for someone to go into business with. You can’t perform in a task, then you can’t perform with me.You’re fired.’

As Zoe, a food retailer, walked out of the boardroom, Lord Sugar told the remaining candidates, Melody and Tom, Susan was let off the hook, ‘I’m flexing my muscles, as someone who is meant to be an expert in this field has failed.You get it?’

Logic’s failure of the task was put down to their poor quality product. Feedback from the supermarkets they pitched to, Asda, Waitrose and Sainsburys, was that the team had no clear target audience, their packaging didn’t stand out and their snap and share biscuit, half chocolate, half digestive, was good in principal, but left one person with a plain biscuit and the other with chocolate.

‘You should have broken it horizontally so both get some of the chocolate’, advised Sugar.

Before making his decision, Lord Sugar told Tom he was like a broken record with his ‘should have, could have, would have done’ speech.

Tom replied that it was a learning process. ‘It’s not school’, said Sugar.

‘I’ve got over you being a charming, nice man, but you’re not authoritative. What should, could, would have done is no good to me.’

Previously Sugar’s advisor Karen said to him that all they hear from Tom is he’s learning. ‘At some point he’s got to get it right’.She also warned that Melody needs to be carefully watched as her interaction with the other candidates is not good.

This was proved when she and Zoe argued on Asda’s shop floor before the pitch, and their bitching to one another in the boardroom.

Sugar told Melody he was concerned about her arguments with colleagues and that it never seems to be her fault?

Next week the teams go back to basics and set up their own market stall a’ la Alan Sugar.

Bon Voyage: Leon is fired

Leon was sent packing on last night's The Apprentice by Lord Sugar for failing to do anything in the Parisian task but draw pictures to describe products to French retailers as he couldn't speak the language.
 
'All I've heard from you is that you don't speak French. When I first set up I did business with the Japanese and Koreans. I didn't speak the language then and I still don't. The majority of places you went they spoke English.'

'Leon I don't know what you were doing. If you wanted to be an artists you should have gone to Monmarte.

'I'm going with my gut instinct, Leon you're fired.'

Tom, PM of Logic, Melody and Leon all went to the boardroom for a last ditch attempt to save themselves from being fired. Their other team mate, Natasha, was allowed back to the house.

'Natasha you're a very lucky lady', said Sugar.

The team's biggest failure, Lord Sugar said, was their poor pitch to La Redoute, an appointment he had set up for the teams to sell their British made products, and only offering ten units of a teapot light when the company are the biggest retailer in France. La Redoute put in no orders.

Logic's independent sales didn't fair much better, having only sold 11,705 euros worth of their two products, a pop up cress postcard and a teapot light. Venture made 14,699 euros from the sale of their products, a carseat backpack and universal grip. La Redoute also put in an order of 214,000 euros worth of the backpack, thanks to an outstanding pitch from Helen.

'It's not just a loose, it's an anniliation', said Sugar. Venture have set a new record for this boardroom.'

Lord Sugar told PM Tom, who made no sales and originally wanted to sell the backpack, that he should have stuck to his guns and that Melody walked over him and Leon.

'I'm struggling to see how you can stay in the process', he told Tom.

Whereas Melody, who used her french language skills to her advantage, Lord Sugar said he likes, despite being ruthless and not sharing the appointments she made to sell their products with her team mates.

'Melody you hijacked the process but did lots of selling. I like your hunger for bulldozing and taking the lion's share, these people let you do that so good for you.'

Next week the remaining contestants are given the task of creating a new biscuit.

The Apprentice- Glenn is fired

Lord Sugar last night told Glenn he had a problem grasping his unique selling point and a social club was not a business.

‘I’ve never come across an engineer that can turn their hand to business. You’re fired’, he said.

Glenn’s team- Venture, failed the task as they did not secure enough advertising space in their freemium magazine for the over sixties called ‘HIP Replacement’, which subsequently saw PM Jim, Glen and Susan go head to head in the boardroom after Zoe was sent back to the contestants’ house.

Sugar saved Jim as he said he had seen a ‘glimmer’ in him he like, despite calling the contestant deflective and manipulative, and placing the blame on him for the failure of the task, which Sugar put down to not negotiating with their first client Carat on rate card prices. A huge mistake for a launch of a new mag, claimed Sugar. He said to Jim the penny obviously dropped afterwards as he offered reduced prices to the two other agencies-Mediacom and Maxus, with Medicom spending £16.850 and Maxus £12,000 on advertising. Carat placed no orders for ad space.

Susan also narrowly escaped being fired with her past successes being her saving grace. ‘You need to show me you can do what you say on paper’, Sugar told the 21-year-old. He warned Susan that she needs to voice her opinions more rather than be a mouse, as describer by Jim, after she said she had told the PM to drop his prices and advised against the title HIP Replacement.

‘That name was bad’, confessed Sugar. It back fired. You read it as exactly what it means. ‘Out with the old, in with the new’, is even worse, like out with the old hip in with the new one.’

The features are also condescending he told them. The technology article about phones tells readers how to make a phone call, are you taking the piss? I’m in that age group and I know how to dial a number. And the cover, he said, was like Viz with old people wearing cardigans, so much for the sixties being the new thirties, as the mag’s strapline reads.

However, Sugar claimed that he was surprised the team had lost as they choose a good niche market, the over sixties, whereas the winners Logic, who secured £9,00 of ads with Maxus, £7,500 with Mediacom and a whopping £60,000, the whole magazine, from Carat, created a tacky lads mag-Covered, that had no USP and was described by advertisers as stuck in the nineties. It doesn’t reflect today’s male they argued.

‘Who would want to advertise next to a feature called Blow Your Load’, said Sugar, who couldn’t understand how the team secured a win.

Next week the contestants must use the French language skills to buy objects in Paris, phrase books at the ready.

The Apprentice-Ellie and Vincent fired in double eviction

It’s a dog eat dog world said Lord Sugar as he fired both Ellie and Vincent on last night’s show where the teams were set the task of designing and creating their own dog or cat food, producing an advert and pitching their ideas to industry experts.

Lord Sugar told Ellie he couldn’t go into business with her as he hasn’t seen much of her and she only pipes up to save herself when in the boardroom but takes a back seat in tasks. ‘She’s been here five weeks and I haven’t seen anything from her.’

Vincent, he said, was too in awe of the other contestants and playing a risky game. He went on to say that Vincent had brought the wrong people into the boardroom and wanted to make an example of him by firing him. ‘I’ve had it with Vincent. I like straight talking people’, Sugar said to his advisers Karen and Nick.

Natasha, who PM Vincent also took into the boardroom, was saved by Lord Sugar as he said she had done her job and couldn’t understand why Vincent had put her in the bottom three over Jim, whose error in choosing a name for the team’s dog food of EveryDog was the reason why Logic lost the task.

Feedback from the industry experts, which Lord Sugar based his decision on, was that Logic’s brand was ‘totally flawed’ and the name of the food insulting to owners as they see their pets as special. Sugar also asked the team why they choose to create a dog food that all types of dogs can eat after at their focus group a vet said it would be impossible to create food for all dogs as they need different things. ‘Who came up with the name’, asked Lord Sugar. Jim said it was his idea but not the meaning behind it, despite earlier claiming it was him who should be credited with choosing EveryDog. Lord Sugar told him he didn’t like people that tried to squirm out of things. But Vincent, who lingered on Jim’s every word during the task, earning them the name of Batman and Robin, stuck up for him and let him return to the house blame free. On leaving the boardroom Jim asked Lord Sugar is he could be PM for the next task to prove himself. Sugar replied, ‘I’ve got your card marked son. I’ll decide when your team leader.’

The winning team Venture, who created a cat food called Catsize, were told their brand had an unique selling point, but their advert, featuring a voice over as the star Ruby the cat, wasn’t well executed, however the foil packaging was very sell-able. Lord Sugar rewarded the team with a tennis lesson.

The Apprentice: Gavin is the third person to be fired

It was third time unlucky for Gavin Winstanley last night, after Alan Sugar decided he wouldn’t be returning to the boardroom again.

The salesman, who nominated himself as PM for Logic, now made up of male and female contestants, was fired for not taking charge of the task, which saw the team only loose by £8, but secure just six out of the ten items from a shopping list for the Savoy Hotel. They spent a total of £1,389.20, from a possible £2,000, minus a fine of £312.68 for their missing items.

‘According to Karen you set guidelines but no-one took any notice, why’, said Alan to Gavin? ‘I don’t know’, he replied. ‘Your resume says you’re a good manager of people, you’re words not mine’, claimed Sugar.  The business mind also brought up the fact that the team, under Gavin’s guidance, had wasted three hours after the brief at the hotel faffing about, rather than going out to source items, some which they failed to identify, believing, at one point, that a cloche was a mini greenhouse.

‘Because the task was out of hand, Gavin you’re fired’, said Lord Sugar.

Zoe and Vincent, who Gavin took to the boardroom with him, had a lucky escape. Despite Vincent being blamed for the failure of the task, having sourced items but not picked them up, and for his despicable management style, which saw him undermine his team mates, something which Alan said he didn’t like, he was sent back to the house. Whereas Zoe, who failed to make any negotiations and said the problem was logistics, not having time to travel from one location to another, was told by Sugar to do more. ‘I’ll be watching’, he said.

Team Venture, who were treated to a circus style performance at a London bar for winning the task, got nine out of ten goods from the list, and spent a total of £1,381.69. However, they paid over the odds for most items, buying tea for £400, originally priced at £999. The problem? Going to expensive stores in pricey areas. We wanted the best quality for the hotel, reasoned Susan, the PM.

‘Where are your brains’, said Lord Sugar. ‘How can tea be worth £999, it must have given you a clue when they accepted £400?’

Next week, the teams must become beauticians in a race to sell treatments to the unsuspecting public.

The Apprentice-Edward the accountant is the first to be fired

Accountant Edward got squeezed out of the competition after loosing the fruit and veg task to the girls' team.

The project manager's downfall, according to Lord Sugar, was that, despite doing simple maths as his day job he didn't want to use his accountancy skills, and kept his plan in his head rather than sharing it with his teammates. 'That's nonsense', said Sugar. 'There's no shame in being an accountant. Many men in business start off as accountants.' Although, Edward assured him he was more than his day job and his only fault was  that he became too ambitious in the task. 'I admire your enthusiasm, but you had no expertise. You said on your resume you are Lord Sugar's dream candidate, but you're a nightmare', claimed Alan Sugar.

Leon and Gavin joined Edward in the boardroom, for the reason that the accountant simply didn't like Gavin, and that Leon had broken the juicer and cost the team the task, supposedly, as they were unable to make enough stock to sell.

In the first episode of the new series of The Apprentice, the girl's team Venture, and the boy's team Logic were given £250 to buy and sell fruit and vegetables to the public.Those who made the most profit won.

The girls, led by Melody, chose to make pots of fruit salad at £2 each to sell to workers for breakfast, and a vegetable pasta for lunch. While their pasta wasn't very popular, having missed the lunchtime rush, city workers in Canary Wharf went mad for their fruit salad. The boys made orange juice and tomato soup, although, much like the girls, missed breakfast time, and only began to start to sell their OJ at 11am to female workers in offices.

Venture, despite only spending £170 of their money to buy produce at New Covent Garden Market, took home a tidy sum of £592.00 plus the money left over, while the boys only took £432.13. 1-0 to the girls!