Tom wins The Apprentice

The dark horse of the competition, inventor Tom Pellereau was hired on last night’s final of The Apprentice.

Tom won a £250,000 fund to be invested into his own business, partnering with Lord Sugar, who made his decision based on the contestants’ business plans and feedback from four professionals, Margaret Mountford (lawyer and businesswoman), Matthew Riley (Yong Entrepenuer of the year 2007), Mike Suiter (owner of Shortlist Media) and Claude Littner (British business exec), who interviewed the candidates.

Lord Sugar was most taken with Tom’s business plan, an idea to sell a special chair to prevent back pain in the workforce, a big problem he said, and a service to check if people’s chairs cause them pain.

‘Maybe there is a thing about the chair, but you are me are wasting time talking to employees. The chair might work’, said Lord Sugar.

He continued to tell Tom that in his businesses, employee absenteeism is not down to back pain, and he could argue that by putting alcohol rub on people’s desk it would stop them catching the flu.

However, Sugar was more impressed with the fact the inventor had, in the past, designed a product, a curved nail file, which is now stocked in UK and US supermarkets.

‘Tom let me in on your secret’, he said. ‘How did you get into Walmart?'

‘I found out who the buyer was and created a beautiful parcel that I asked the receptionist to deliver to her. The buyer gave me half an hour and agreed to place an order’, replied Tom.

‘I didn’t know you had it in you’, said a shocked Sugar.

Runner up was Helen Louise Milligan, the favourite to win.

Lord Sugar said he was disappointed with her business plan, a concierge service for busy families and asked why she didn’t stick to what she knew, the bakery business.

‘Helen you need to have experience in the field. Concierge service is nothing to do with the business you’ve been in. Where was your head on this one?’

She told him that she had had two ideas, but obviously chose the wrong one, before putting in a last ditch attempt which back-fired, to outline her other plan to open a bespoke bakery.

Sugar implied that if it was a job he was offering, she would have won hands down.

In third place was Susan Ma. Her business idea was to sell organic beauty products worldwide, but her plan was majorly flawed, estimating a £4.5 turnover in her first year.

‘Do you know how much L’oreal and Lancome spend on getting people to by their products in shops? My money would be gone straight-away. I know about this business. You haven’t got a hope in hell’, said Lord Sugar.

‘Whilst it has always been my intention to go into the cosmetics industry, this time it’s not for me. I’m afraid to say you’re fired.’

The man with the gift of the gab and full of cliches, Jim Eastwood, came in last position after he tried to jump on the back of one of Lord Sugar’s companies, with a e-learning product for schools.

‘When did you come up with the idea Jim’, asked Sugar.

Jim said two weeks before the show started.

‘I’m worried you’re selling me and jumping on the back of my brand.’

Jim said he needed clout, but would do all the work himself. He went on to say, after Sugar said schools have no money to spend on things like this, that he intended for the business to be not for profit but realised that wasn’t appropriate.

Lord Sugar replied hastily that he had enough of those and does his bit, and wants a business that makes money in a tough economic climate.

‘Jim you’re a great salesperson, but struggled between salesman and business acumen. You wrote the plan to make me happy.’

‘Jim this was an opportunity to become my business partner. The opportunity is no longer open to you. You’re fired.

Afterwards on The Apprentice You’re Fired, Sugar admitted that him and Tom would be developing his line of curved nail files, rather than focus on the chair, outlined in his business plan. He suggested to Tom that they work with Susan, who is currently working in the business industry, when Lord Sugar admitted that he thought Susan would go far and is one to watch in the future.

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.

To market with Melody, the eleventh apprentice to be fired.

Mouthy Melody set herself up for failure on .last night’s The Apprentice nominating herself as Logic’s PM for the investment task.

Lord Sugar said it was with regret that he was letting her go, but earlier had confessed he found it difficult to understand what she does (work).

‘There’s a woman with exceptional ability, but it’s a cruel process here’, he told Melody’s remaining team-mates Helen and Tom.

Logic faced Lord Sugar in the boardroom after loosing to Venture by less than £30 in a task where they had objects to sell at a profit and reinvest their money by buying other products to sell. A challenge which Sugar called ‘smell to sell.’

‘It’s not a great win’, Lord Sugar told Venture, whose PM Natasha failed to do much re-investing.

‘You had no balls, no guts, you didn’t reinvest’, shouted Sugar as he took away the team’s treat, a helicopter ride to Sandown.

‘Which of you three brain surgeons let this happen?’, Sugar asked Melody, Tom and Helen, whop up to now had a perfect record.

Tom and Melody said the blame lay with Helen, who wasted time making a four hour round trip to a linen wholesalers to purchase duvet covers for a retailer at only £3 profit per unit. The retailer ordered 30.

Lord Sugar told Helen, who asked Melody if she could take over as PM half-way through the task, and became obsessed with selling the goods to retailers, ‘That’s very unusual. Never happened before someone saying they want to take over control.’

He also said that she had made a big mistake focusing on selling to retailers as they can just go to the wholesaler themselves.

Whereas Tom, he said, an innovator and innovator, was right up his alley, a product man, but over the ten weeks he had only said there was a problem with a task when it was too late.

What saved Tom was the sales he made, selling nodding dogs and umbrellas to the public, when it wasn’t his thing.

Helen was saved by her impressive track record, having never lost before.

In next week's programme, the teams have to come up with and open their own fast food restaurants.

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- Felicity is fired

Logic’s PM Felicity was axed on last night’s show for, according to Lord Sugar, ‘A disastrous task and not being decisive.’

‘There’s no way I could have gone into business with her’, Sugar told his advisers Karen and Nick. ‘If you did you would have to make all the decisions’, replied Karen.

Last night’s task challenged the two teams, lead by Felicity and Zoe, to choose two beauty products/treatments to sell in Birmingham. Zoe’s team-Venture, choose a spray tan and cold pedicure, while Felicity’s team, Logic, also chose the spray tan, which they lost to the other team, so went with a blow dry bar and a hot shell massage.

Venture spent £734 on products and made £937, a profit of £203.01. Logic spent a massive £924, made £677, which is a loss of £246.28.

PM Felicity blamed the failure of the task on team mates Ellie and Natasha, who she took in to the boardroom with her. Ellie she said had sat back and not shown any enthusiasm, while Natasha she claimed failed to sell any treatments, just products.

Lord Sugar questioned Ellie, whose job in the task was to give treatments, about what she had done for the three hours she was upstairs in the team’s treatment rooms without any customers, and asked her why she hadn’t called her colleagues downstairs to see what was going on. ‘It’s a very serious issue’, he said. However Sugar decided to give Ellie the benefit of the doubt and told her in future to come forward.

To Natasha, who Karen warned him was all talk, Lord Sugar asked why she had only been selling the products rather than the treatments. In which she replied that there was no strategy to sell treatments, Felicity claimed this was not true. ‘You didn’t catch on to the fact that the idea of the task was to sell treatments (the money maker)’, said Sugar. ‘I’m not looking for a receiver. I’m looking for someone that does something.

But it wasn’t only the loosing team who got a telling off. Lord Sugar told Venture that their profit was exactly great, particularly as they had Susan on their team, who sells beauty products for a living. Susan agreed with him, however the rest of the team blamed her for their poor result, with Zoe claiming that she had trusted Susan’s word in the amount of products they should buy. But Susan denied that it was her fault.

Next week the teams have to design and make a new brand of dog food. Don’t they say never work with children or animals?

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!

The Apprentice- Stella is hired

The right person won in the end, with Stella English piping Chris Bates to the post with her well branded bourbon drink. Although it was a close call, experience triumphed over youth and rightly so.

Both finalists stepped up their game in the last task on Sunday night which saw them create a new alcoholic drink targeted at men and women over 25-years-old. Joined by former contestants, minus ‘Stuart the brand Baggs’, Stella created a bourbon based drink mixed with honey and spices, while Chris’ team came up with a rum based pomegranate and vanilla drink named Prism, it’s unique selling point a pyramid-shaped bottle. But Chris’ downfall was the colour of his drink, chosen by team mates Liz and Shibby, a feminine rose pink. Sensible Stella stuck to bourbon’s natural colour in a tall, slim bottle. Although feedback was that the drink was too pungent and the bottle looked like a vinegar bottle.

However despite some negative comments, Sir Alan Sugar chose the candidate with 10 years business experience. 2011 looks set to be a Stella year for the mum of two.