Junk Shops The Apprentice

'This is not about a job any more.'

I'm the investor and you're going to make me some money.

Heading to London, 16 potential business partners

all keen to kick-start a company.

Don't try and hide, because we're not playing Where's Wally?

I'm not looking for Lord Lucan,

I'm looking for somebody who's going to show me

that they have got the business acumen to be my partner.

On offer - a 50/50 deal

with the nation's most demanding investor.

That first few lines there,

to me, was you digging a bloody great big hole.

Willing to bankroll new business in tough times,

Lord Sugar is on the hunt for one winning partnership.

Basic business principles went right down the drain on this thing.

You should've all known better.

-Start the car!

-It's a deal worth fighting for.

That's not fair, we're taking it in turns.

She needs to cop on to herself.

16 candidates...

-It's way outside the box. It's way outside the box.

-Go, go, go, go, go!

-..12 tough weeks...

-GLASS SMASHES

Where am I going?!

..one life-changing opportunity.

You're fired. You're fired.

This is my boardroom, and by the way, this is my money.

You're fired.

Previously on The Apprentice...

The task today is all about making a new condiment.

GROANING

The teams got saucy,

with mixed results.

Can I suggest we taste it?

Duane's chutney bit back...

-Oh, my God.

-HE COUGHS

-Something's not right. Something's missing.

-..and Katie's ketchup cost a lot.

The recommended retail price for that is 3.99.

We definitely couldn't do it for 1.95.

We're left with 23 bottles.

-What? Left?

-In the boardroom chutney was champ,

and a third loss for Katie

left plenty on her plate.

What is this? I can't see a lorry driver in a greasy spoon

asking, "'Ere, Harry, pass us the Belissimo."

-It was never made crystal clear to us what our target market was.

-Ricky spread the blame.

You absolutely underdelivered. You sold rubbish figures.

It was very hard to sell at the prices we were given.

But it was Michael who failed to cut the mustard.

-Do you think you're out of your depth?

-Not at all.

-Not at all.

-Well, I don't know what you were doing. You're fired.

Thank you for the opportunity, Lord Sugar.

He became the third casualty of the boardroom.

Now 13 remain to fight

for the chance to become Lord Sugar's business partner.

Bayswater. West London.

For the candidates, a morning off.

PHONE RINGS

-Go on, then!

-Maybe Lord Sugar fancied a game of ping pong!

LAUGHTER

-Good morning.

-'This is Lord Sugar's office.

'Lord Sugar would like you to meet him at the Old Cinema in Chiswick.

-'The cars will be with you in 30 minutes.'

-OK, thank you.

Old Cinema in Chiswick. Cars will be pick us up in 30 minutes.

Go, go, go!

-What clue's in cinema? I feel for some reason it might be about the adverts.

-Yeah.

Saying it's an old cinema. Is it actually functional?

Let's face it, we'll be producing our own trailer, aren't we?

They've won a task, they think they're at the top.

Are they taking it seriously?

-Duane and Nick need a bit of bringing back down to earth.

-Yeah.

-People who weren't working their hardest...

-They've gone.

-..have been fired.

-I don't think everyone's pulling their weight.

I don't think they're contributing.

I think there's maybe a few people I'd like to see get exposed, if I'm honest.

Chiswick.

A converted cinema, packed with vintage furniture -

and high-end second hand goods.

Good afternoon.

-ALL:

-Good afternoon, Lord Sugar.

There's a famous saying - one man's junk is another man's treasure.

There's been the rag and bone man, the car boot sales,

we've got the charity shops,

all of these people make money by taking things that people discard

and then make it into something that someone wants to buy.

That's what this task is all about. You're going to have to source your second-hand stock

and then you're going sell it to the public.

So what I've laid on for you is a couple of shops

in the East End of London

where this kind of retro stuff is selling in big volume.

Yeah?

So I'm going to mix the teams up a bit more here.

Ricky, you go to Sterling,

and Jade, you go to Phoenix.

The team that makes the most amount of profit will win,

and in the losing team

one of you will be fired.

-OK, everything clear? ALL:

-Yes, Lord Sugar.

Good luck. I'll see you back in the boardroom in a few days' time, yeah?

-Off you go. ALL:

-Thank you, Lord Sugar.

Worth over £2 billion a year,

the UK's market for second-hand goods is on the up.

From genuine antiques to re-purposed scrap...

-What can you do with these?

-I think people just put them on the wall.

..there's plenty of profit in pre-owned goods.

600 quid!

And re-furbishing or upcycling old items can add big mark-ups.

Bins are quite good, because if we can buy a bin, we can funk it up to be a funky bin.

Both teams have £1,000 and two days to source

and sell on second-hand stock.

But first, new leaders are needed.

Bidding to repeat last week's win, drinks distributor Duane.

I would put myself forward as project manager again - ultimately, it's buying and selling.

If we can all apply logics to it, we can get this task won.

I wouldn't mind putting myself forward

for project manager purely because I have set up a retail unit before.

Right, OK. Who votes for myself?

Thanks, guys(!)

Who votes for Laura?

-I vote for Laura, because you've set up a retail unit.

-That's four. That's it then.

OK. OK? Fantastic.

Thank you very much. OK.

Being an attractive businesswoman can have its ups and downs,

but people shouldn't be fooled by that

because I have also been described as a Rottweiler in the past!

The type of area, we are Brick Lane, this trendy area.

People will be very judgmental in the way the shop looks.

Heading up the other team, fine wine investor, Tom.

I'm only 23 years old. The very special thing about me

is I'm a very well-rounded individual.

'My leadership style is laid-back. You'd be foolish

'to go into any situation thinking you'll agree with everyone.'

How you deal with them is most important.

Are we going less is more? Minimalistic?

-Fill it high, sell it cheap?

-In terms of strategy for buying,

we've got £1,000, but I want quality over quantity.

We could just buy five items here and try to make a fortune.

Yeah, the idea is to spend as little as possible.

There's no point starting with loads and not being able to sell it.

'Tom's strategy is a bit wrong.'

We want to fill this shop and we don't want it looking empty so let's buy as much as we can.

Let's fill these vans and let's get it and sell it.

A 700 square foot unit with a table and chairs in, it's going to look stupid.

While for Tom less is more,

Laura's team focus on turning trash into cash.

We need to very cost-conscious - get to houses and charity places,

get as much crap for next to nothing. That's what we're doing,

-we're selling crap and turning it into style.

-That's exactly it.

It's all about adding the value to the product.

We get a product, add a lot of value, make it stylish.

This is something I love doing, I love taking old furniture

and tarting them up.

I've sold chairs for, like, £250, saying "limited edition".

And they buy it, even if it's like a Union Jack on it,

-something really funky.

-Union Jack seems to be quite in now.

Gabrielle, I think you should lead the front creatively.

-Is everybody happy for that?

-Absolutely agree.

-OK, fantastic. Thank you very much.

Project managers picked. Plans in place.

Facing an early morning start, it's back to the house.

6:30am.

Today, both teams must seek out their stock.

Use your money to pick up additional stuff that we can use

to basically tart up our materials as well. Buttons, you might be able to find really cheap stuff

that we can start ripping apart for customisation as well.

Tomorrow, their shops must open for business.

Let's think realistically how many items we'll sell.

Maybe 50-70 items will be a good target.

I'll give you £200, but I want you to spend as little as possible. Be very selective. Is that OK?

Just keep in touch and let's get going. OK, then.

Tom's sort of strategy or briefing to us was to give us £200

-and tell us not to spend it.

-SHE CHUCKLES

A sales floor to fill, you know, we're not miracle workers,

we're good negotiators and good salespeople, not miracle workers.

Greenwich. An auction house stacked with bric-a-brac.

Lot 65, a book rack. 25 over there.

Bidding on Tom's tight budget -

Adam, Stephen and Katie.

60, £60, 65 I need.

-Have we got the money for that?

-Looking for 80? Are we all done?

At £75.

Lot 54, honey oak three-drawer serving table.

-Are we going for it?

-No.

110, 120, 130, 140. I'll take 145.

-You won't set up a shop for £200. It's silly.

-It's ridiculous.

Lot 148, good quality vintage 20th-century clocks.

-I like this, I do like this.

-'This team has committed'

a number of mortal sins. Firstly,

they didn't argue about

the small amount of money they were given.

'They only got £200 of the £1,000 seed money

'and then they come to an auction. They bid for four lots, won three.'

Three things?!

All done at 50.

-Could buy that.

-That's just foolish!

I'm happy with what we've bought, but I don't think we've got enough.

This is it.

For Adam, a final bid for stock...

in the auction house bins.

-Steve? Steve?

-Yeah?

Found some great stuff in the skip.

Another wine rack. A bench.

-This in the skip?

-Yeah.

The stuff's falling down.

PAN CLATTERS TO GROUND

Tom seems to be wanting to lose the task, I find.

We're trying to negotiate, get as many products as possible,

-he's given us a tight budget.

-We need to throw more money at this.

My whole attitude is prepare to win and he's preparing to fail.

Tooting. South London.

How you doing, mate? Are you well?

Set on adding value to vintage cast-offs...

-What about that chest in the window?

-The trunk?

-Yeah.

..Laura's team is on the hunt for products with potential.

Upholster that.

You can paint those bits and pieces.

How much do you sell these legs for? Can we take them?

The interesting pieces are your two suitcases at the top.

-The two top ones?

-Yeah. DUANE: I like that suitcase.

I could do the leather trunk for 10.

The camel stool, side tables, the trunk and this retro table

-with the chair and the glass table which matches this.

-Yeah.

-And the four stools plus one.

-The broken table in the back as well.

-OK.

-There's 100, mate.

-Thank you.

-Just give me a quick tally.

-18, 19, 19 plus frames.

We've bought a hell of a lot of stuff, haven't we?

Right, we'd better get going.

Got a lot more than we thought we'd get.

I did like the items we took. There's nothing there that I think I won't be able to sell.

Oh, this is nice.

For project manager Tom and his team, a car boot sale.

-What do you reckon about these chairs?

-That's quite cool.

The perfect place to bulk buy bargains.

That's a bit damaged, though.

-Can we fix that?

-It's not buy any old rubbish, though.

-I think this is worth £7.

-I don't like it.

I think that's a cool retro mirror.

It's damaged, though, isn't it, on the mirror again.

It's important not just to buy any old stuff to go in a shop.

It needs to be something that's desirable for buyers

so we've been selective.

-That's quite cool.

-Hmm.

Just need to buy enough stuff to fill the shop, that's the problem.

-We will, but I don't like it.

-OK, cool.

Here we are in an enormous car boot sale, full of everything that you can imagine.

The point is find the right thing here to take to Brick Lane,

home to the young trendy with the gelled hair.

-In terms of the colouring of it...

-That's perfect.

-It's quite a nice piece.

-And they've only bought a few little items. It's nuts!

But they've got to fill that shop tomorrow.

I don't want to walk into an empty shell of a shop!

-You reckon put records in it?

-We'd have to sand it down.

My concern is the condition it's in.

GLASS SMASHES

SHE GASPS

Oh, my God! Erm, OK, let's not do it.

Sorry about smashing it!

Brick Lane.

Heart of London's fashionable East End.

Bursting with vintage and retro retail

and cool customers.

This is it, guys.

-Cool.

-This is good, I think we need to get on with making stuff.

-20 quid.

-Bargain.

For Laura's team, a truck-load of stock in need of a makeover.

What I think we need to think about now is a plan of action.

There's things here that cannot be sold as they are.

I think these would be great with the shabby chic effect.

Paint as shabby chic.

Again in...

I'm not quite sure what the shabby chic stands for.

Ideally, we want to upcycle as many items as we can,

because this is the idea, we're adding value

to what is potentially someone else's junk,

to try and make it attractive to someone else.

I would like ideally to have a stamp on everything - that's our brand.

Charged with turning second-hand stock into a pretty penny -

Gabrielle.

So we need cushions, we need fabric, we need candles.

Can I order two metres in the striped fabric...

Actually, no, get four metres of that.

Can I have four metres in the orange suede?

Two packs of the castors...

No, eight, four packs, four packs.

Four packs of the castor wheels.

Sterling seem to think they have to upcycle everything.

That takes a lot of time and a lot of expertise,

and most importantly, a lot of materials, and materials cost money.

-12 of these and two of these.

-£4 each.

-We've got loads left.

-Yeah, come on, guys.

-OK, then.

So can I order the doorknobs at £4 each.

At the other end of Brick Lane,

Jade, Tom and Azhar get a first look at their retail space.

To be honest, this is quite a big shop.

Obviously, the size of it looks quite big.

Going to have to get a few more items to fill it up.

South London.

-Hello.

-Hi, I'm Adam. Nice to meet you.

Low on stock and short of cash,

the rest of Tom's team hunt for hidden gems in a junk shop.

That wine rack, definitely.

That lampshade.

What do you do with that?

Spray it up, know what I mean, 10p, innit.

Chair like this, and I think the suitcase as well are the two things I'd pick out.

What do you want to do, a price on the lot?

-Just tell us what you can do.

-50 quid the lot.

We haven't got it.

-Stop it, you'll have me crying.

-We've only got literally 25 quid.

35 quid, I'll throw the books in.

-There's profit there.

-Tell you what we'll do, we'll meet in the middle,

say 30 from a north Londoner to the south Londoner.

-Go on, then. Go on.

-£30.

-You've had me pants down.

Cor, dear, I don't know!

See you later, guys.

'They didn't do very well. There's a lot of things here'

that would have made a good profit, and they've missed every single piece,

and instead they've rummaged through a pile of junk,

ended up with two old metal chairs,

which aren't even worth the money in scrap.

They picked absolute rubbish.

We found all the good stuff right at the back,

so if we could give him a bit of advice, he should probably start again.

He probably doesn't know how much gold is in that shop,

-because we've just took all the best stuff.

-I agree.

4pm.

North London.

Is this it here?

Next for Laura and her boys, a house clearance.

God, it smells vintage, that's for sure!

Why is everything going, what's the clearance for?

Someone's passed away.

OK. Can we take what we like?

Is it possible that we can take the curtains?

What about the carpet, can we rip some of this carpet up?

Some of this stuff, I can't imagine buying personally.

Is that a bit TOO retro?

It'll be a challenge to see if we can sell it,

but nothing ventured, nothing gained, and there is a well-known expression,

don't look a gift horse in the eye.

I think once we've got the items scrubbed up,

I'm really hoping that we go back and the guys have done some pretty impressive stuff.

I love that.

They're all mini tables.

Do people buy this kind of stuff as mini tables?

£60, you'd pay for something like this.

That's a see-saw, perhaps.

I still think it looks like a box on a ladder.

I'm not 100% sure that all the items are going to end up looking better,

but Gabrielle's got that... underhand.

I actually really like that.

7pm.

-For the other team...

-It's definitely minimalistic.

Tom's vision takes shape.

Maybe bring that table a little bit further forward.

What chair would go best with that table, that chair there?

I'd put it a bit more further out, I think we need to fill up more space here.

No, I would put it... this a bit further out.

Well, that's two drinks tables.

'I feel it looks very, very bare.

'It's a big retail unit,'

have we got enough stuff?

I don't think we have.

Still sprucing up their stock, Laura's team.

So tell us what was next on your list and we'll get started on it.

All these items here are waiting for the red paint.

All the stuff in there still needs work on it.

The team have got a long night ahead of them, I think.

They've got a real desire to paint everything, to change everything.

And I'm not sure whether that actually detracts from the value

or adds any value.

I tell you what I'm not 100% keen on so far, the Union Jacks.

-It looks like

-I

-painted it, and I can't paint.

'What the hell is a Union Jack doing on our products?'

How creative is a Union Jack?

The idea of that was trying to get a similar language between all of our products.

I don't get it, if you think someone would buy that...

It's more of a retro look, which I feel works well.

-So you're confident, then?

-Yeah.

7.30am.

Ten hours to make a cool profit on the streets of East London.

What are you wearing?

I'm going to try and fit in with the Brick Lane crew,

-so I'm going to wear something really old and doesn't fit.

-Yeah?

The choice of clothes is a bit of an issue.

I don't hang around Brick Lane too much.

But in my mind, I know it's quite hip.

I'm trying to pull off as hip as I can

and not look like a complete prat.

If I can just undo my shirt, my buttons here,

and look a bit arty, I can get into it.

The only concern is that people like what we've done.

I mean, especially on the upcycling side of things as well.

I'm more confident we'll sell those than the plainer furniture

just because Union Jacks and that kind of thing

at the moment is quite in.

9am.

Brick Lane.

Has this been messed up overnight or did we leave it like this?!

We left it like this.

Right. Let's go. Let's go.

At Laura's shop, Vintage Gold,

it's all hands on deck to get the place ship-shape.

-So Union Jack stuff...

-Uh-huh.

..all suitcases, shabby chic can be priced.

-I just need to sort this out.

-OK. That's fine.

What I'm concerned about is this.

Here we are. Back again.

On Tom's team...

It's looking nice, isn't it?

..last-minute tweaks for his minimal Retro Station.

Looks fresh, looks clean.

-Hi, there. Just having a look round?

-Is that all right?

Of course you can. Absolutely.

We're just opening so please do have a look.

This hole punch...

I didn't even know that you could get hold punches like that.

-No, me neither!

-Absolutely fantastic.

-How long have you guys been here?

-One day. This is it. One day only.

-Would you take eight on it then? £8?

-Yeah, I'd take eight on that.

I'll cash that up for you.

There's your receipt.

-I'm going to get that too. Then I won't get anything else.

-All right. No worries.

'I actually really liked the shop.'

It didn't have that many things in it, not too cluttered,

but everything that was there was pretty special.

-Could we have some leaves coming in, like a path?

-Of leaves?

-Yeah.

Adding character to its clutter

and running late, Laura's team.

This chair alone, I would say,

-at least 140.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

We paid £25 for it.

-You're sure that we can get that?

-Yeah.

120.

I've got no clue in this.

I don't buy this shit.

With Vintage Gold open, time to rustle up some customers.

Morning, guys. We've got a vintage shop here.

Got vintage goods from around London. It's only open for one day

and we've got some of the best antique pieces from around London.

Some of them have been upcycled. Would you like a quick look around?

-HE LAUGHS

-It's OK, thank you.

-Are you sure?

-I was interested in these shelves.

-Ah, good choice, good choice.

-Yes.

-Yes?

At Retro Station, Tom's hand-picked products are a hit.

Vintage hole punch and obviously the weighing scales for £40, OK?

But while sales are brisk...

stock is low.

There's a difference between minimalism

and emptiness.

And I think they need to really get some stuff in there.

-I think it's going really well.

-It is, yeah.

The only thing is stock.

Do we take this last opportunity to get some more stock?

Erm, stock...

Stock...

It's not just furniture. We've got little clocks, little cabinets,

candleholders, crockery...

On the other side of Brick lane,

Laura's Vintage Gold...

-It's worth being here.

-Definitely. You might see something else you quite like here.

..pushing its brand of retro-chic to style-conscious locals.

This is actually my favourite bit in here. I love...

This one's big and this one's small but...

You'd have to be really cool. Clearly, you are.

Don't miss out. You're not going to find a piece like that again.

Strange.

-Where did you get these from?

-Do you love it?

-It's like '80s.

-They're kind of '80s, isn't it?

Do you want to sit down in it?

What if we did a deal on it for you?

Are you sure?

It's not a hugely easy sale

for any of the items. You've really got to sell hard.

They're actually lampshades from the 1970s.

-I'll have a look around and get back to you.

-OK.

You have to be quite pushy and really try to convince them.

Hi. Do you want to have a look in our pop-up vintage store?

We're literally only here for today. Really funky stuff.

There's lots of different sales techniques going on

here at the shop, but Jane's I find the most uncomfortable.

Do you want to have a quick look?

She's very pushy, she's very aggressive with the customers

and they don't really like it.

-What about a chair?

-No!

Midday at Retro Station...

How retro can you get?

-I'll take this book.

-Thank you.

Everything's going well so far.

We've sold a number of items

'but the shop looks empty. Are we going to have enough stock for the rest of the day?'

Hi, Tom, mate. It's Steve.

In terms of stock, one simple question.

Do you need more stock?

I think we do need a few more items.

All right, pal.

Battersea, South London.

With just a few hours to go,

Jade, Adam and Stephen hunt for tat

that might turn a profit.

-How much do you want for the cameras? 50p?

-Yes.

Yeah, is that all right? There you go. £1 for the two. Cheers.

-Nine pounds.

-It's a deal.

-Thank you.

-Three quid is all I've got.

-I've had to buy them myself so...

-Of course.

-£3.50 for the four and we'll do the deal.

OK, go on.

We could pay a pound for it but I can't pay more.

I can allow you a pay a pound for that, Jade, but that's...

-You can have it for a pound.

-Yeah?

-As long as you promise you'll go away.

-Well done.

-I think she'll regret that.

She would have sold that for three or four quid in an hour. You can't get more retro than that.

At Vintage Gold...

I know you want a chair, right?

Oh, don't leave!

With stock still high,

a plan from project manager, Laura.

We've got our leaflets so let's get these out and try

and push a little bit of traffic more our way.

There's too many of us to sell to everyone

so I want to utilise the three of you better.

-You know what you're doing?

-Super, yes.

-Just do your best, guys.

-Yeah, of course.

We've got a pop-up vintage store around the corner

and we've got a 10% discount with this flyer.

Can I give you a flyer? We've got a sale on.

Flyers, an extra 10% off with flyers.

Give you one of these, mate!

Got a vintage sale on, just round the corner.

With its promotional team drumming-up trade...

Fantastic. That's £10.

..a mid-afternoon rush for Vintage Gold.

I'm really excited.

People are literally just walking in, grabbing stuff, paying for it

and walking out. I think we're doing really well.

Considering the fact of the amount of stock we had,

the guys are working so hard.

Open it up. You can put all of your stuff, your newspapers,

magazines, whatever else.

I actually think we'll be pleasantly surprised when we start doing

the tallying up of how much profit we've made.

Man, thank you.

Armed with more stock,

Retro Station's reinforcements arrive.

-I like them. These are cool.

-£10 each, Tom?

-We've got to get these out as quickly as possible.

-OK. Cool.

-Yeah?

They're doing well.

I may well have sneered a little bit yesterday

and I apologise because I thought their product selection was poor.

What do I know?

That's a bit crap, isn't it?

There's your receipt.

-You just put that in the bag.

-Oh, did I? I just put it in there.

Shit. Whoops.

We've tried to create a bit of a retro feel.

It's aimed at the kind of people that are living around here.

I've put some stuff like this on the skip!

5pm.

One hour to go

before takings must be totted-up.

You like the chair? Do you...

If I do you a deal on it, do you want to buy it?

The Union Jack stuff isn't selling well.

We've got all the chairs, fabric chairs, wooden chairs.

My initial impressions were

it wouldn't be the first thing to go off the shelves.

I'm optimistic that we're going to shift it.

It's just what price we shift it for I think is the question.

We literally sanded them all down, painted them,

tried to give them an identity, not just a piece of furniture,

but a piece of art as well.

I think things with flags on them just look a little silly.

It didn't really seem vintage in the way that you would think of,

as sort of classic or elegant.

To me, it just was a bit...

almost cheap or tacky.

We do have still quite a lot to shift.

Please, come and take this furniture off me!

With both teams' money tied-up in unsold stock...

Vintage shop! Vintage prices!

We've got the last few bits now for you guys.

..last chance to convert it into cash.

Cheers. Thanks for that.

Mind your backs, now.

Go on.

-Where am I going?

-Just keep running!

Lampshades for a pound!

Nick, we're going to sell this now.

-9.50 and you've got yourself a deal.

-Nine.

-9.50.

-9.25.

-9.50.

-9.25.

-I was selling them at 40 quid.

-OK, I'm going to go then...

-9.25. It's 25p.

-9.30.

-9.25.

-All right, 9.25. You've got yourself a deal.

Come and take it. One pound!

Are you just wanting two?

I've just given a lady a ridiculous deal.

Two vases, were going for 60 quid...

£2.50.

I'm literally giving it to you. One pound.

Look. Feel the weight of it. Solid glass table.

Yes, but my house is too far!

Worry about that afterwards. It's a pound!

I can sell you that chair that goes with this table for one pound.

-No...

-Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hang on.

No, no. I finished my pounds.

-One pound!

-I know, it's too much, I'm sorry.

6pm...

-That's it. Done.

-Closed.

OK, guys. We're closed!

..closing time.

Oh, yes! Oh, yes!

Guys, come on!

That is really good.

Tomorrow, the boardroom.

You can go through to the boardroom now.

-Good afternoon.

-ALL: Good afternoon, Lord Sugar.

Well, I would have found this a very interesting task,

interesting in the sense that

the product definition was actually undefined.

It wasn't as if I was actually saying,

go and make something specific,

or buy something specific, it was anything.

And I'll be interested to hear how we got on here.

Sterling, let's start here.

-Team leader?

-Yes, that was myself, Lord Sugar.

-How did that come about?

-I put myself forward quite strongly, actually.

I was very keen to really put myself on your radar

and start stepping out of the crowd, if I'm honest with you.

You're in the wedding dress business?

-Yes, I have my own shop.

-So you're used to dressing things up,

making it look better then, yeah?

You could put it that way, yeah.

-OK. Well, go on then.

-Really, it was quite foreign territory to most of us

in terms of retro, vintage...

We had a little bit of an advantage because we had Gabrielle on our team.

We started to get some ideas on the table.

Some very popular ideas to start with was the shabby chic look.

-What?

-Shabby chic furniture. Basically...

-Shabby chic?

-Yes.

You get some old furniture, paint it and then sand it down

so that it looks a little bit...

-Ah, right.

-..rustic.

Who started working on the refurbishment or the upcycling?

-The girls and Nick.

-The three of us...

-The three of us and Nick.

-Yeah. What did that entail then?

-Painting, reupholstering...

-Reupholstering?!

-Yes.

-Well, reupholstering involves material and a staple gun.

-Yes.

More shabby than chic.

Hmmm. What style do you think your shop was?

It was probably more down the route of vintage than retro...

What did it look like? I heard there were dead leaves on the floor,

like an Oxfam shop in the middle of a hurricane or something.

The customers said it looked quite arty when they came in.

-They liked the leaves on the floor.

-All right. Who was good at selling?

To be fair to everyone, I think we all had a fair crack at it,

to be honest with you.

I don't actually know what the individual sales figures were but...

Who was like...

got in the mood of the particular shop?

I mean, there's selling, you know...

Del Boy selling off a stall.

But there are times when you have to take on

a different type of posture with the particular clientele

-you're dealing with.

-I was quite impressed with myself, to be honest with you.

-OK.

And, so, a good team leader?

She did a very good job as project manager. Yeah, I was very impressed.

-All right. I've got it. I've got it.

-Good.

OK, Phoenix. So, Tom?

-Yeah, it was myself.

-How did that come about, Tom?

After you spoke to us, definitely a task I was really excited about

and wanted to take the opportunity to be project manager.

Did you have a strategy?

Yes, I was cautious about what we should be going out and buying.

I said to the guys, look, let's really drive a hard bargain,

let's really negotiate down so our costs are low.

But I think everyone was happy with the strategy we were going for.

-How was your team split up?

-I wanted Jade by my side because I think we've probably

got the best eye for design and also I wanted to be in the shop

to get a feel for the size of it, how we were going to lay things out.

The other team, what were they tasked with?

OK, the other team was the stock buying team.

So for me, I wanted to get the strongest negotiators on that side of the task.

-Stock buying, from the dealers?

-Yeah, from the dealers.

-Right.

Very, very simple remit. Obviously, the key to this task was profit.

And in terms of items we were selecting, we were quite cautious

in everything we selected cos the bottom line is,

if people don't like it, they're not going to buy it.

So we went to the dealership and we found a nice room out the back.

Why would he have all this stuff out the back if it wasn't for sale?

It was there that long that it had become retro.

I don't think it was retro initially.

We actually bought a couple of suitcases

that are quite in at the moment.

We also bought a couple of chairs that we could use...

So he must have been delighted. He must have thought

he'd found a right bunch of idiots. So, were you given free rein

on how much you could spend?

I gave them £200 to go out with initially.

So was that the deliberate thing on your behalf, was it?

-Yeah...

-You didn't want them to get carried away?

-Yeah, and we also had the whole of day two...

-Damage limitation or what?

-They could only blow 200 quid?

-Yeah.

Lord Sugar, I mentioned several times that

the shop for me from the outside, which is where you should judge a shop,

not when you're stood on the inside, looked bare.

But I didn't know whether we were going for minimalistic...

But you do get these arty farty people that just have a big white shop

and one thing in the middle...

The Brick Lane area, it's not my expertise.

It had been set out in a good way. We did the best with what it was.

-So, how was Tom? Good?

-Good.

-Good team leader?

Tom overall was very good.

-And you got good cooperation from all the people?

-Absolutely fantastic.

I haven't got a bad word to say about anyone in my team for the last two days.

Good.

Brave statement but good.

Now, I think I've heard enough now so I think

we need to get down to the numbers

and let's hear how we did, see how much money we made.

I'll start with you, Nick.

-Have you got some numbers there that I can write down?

-Yeah. Phoenix...

total sales of £1,423.50.

Minus the total spend of £360.10

generated a profit...

of £1,063.40.

That's not bad for a few days' work, a thousand pounds.

Karen, how about your team?

We did better on sales...

£1,444.25.

But we spent more.

£660.76...

making a profit of £783.49.

Right, well, well done, Phoenix.

You came in with £1,063 profit

playing £783 so that's very good.

Looks like your stinginess paid off here

because you spent £360 compared to their £660.

-So very, very good.

-Thank you.

Keeping in the spirit of things,

I'm going to set up a '40s vintage party for you.

And here's the good news.

You're going to learn how to swing dance.

-Fantastic. Fantastic.

-Good.

Have a nice time and I'll see you on the next task.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

Winning team!

Yes!

I thought we'd lost!

Well, same kind of sales figure

and clearly you spent more money.

That's it, really. But I think...

you were there on the day, so you need to go

and talk about this amongst yourself and I'll see you back here shortly.

Off you go.

1940s SWING MUSIC PLAYS

-Cheers, guys!

-Team Phoenix!

-Team Phoenix!

-And to a good PM!

-Good job, Tom.

-Very good job, Tom.

-Excellent.

CHEERING

My name's Simon, this is Nicky

and our job is to get you swinging.

My God!

Here you go. Push. Turn...

'Finally a win'

and I think well-deserved.

'Tom was a very strong PM. I'm not necessarily sure he was a good PM.'

He chose a risky strategy but it paid off.

And out.

'Because of my age, I think it makes...'

It can be quite difficult for some people to take orders from myself.

But every time I asked someone to do something,

they did it without questions.

Big team, big win. Cheers.

-Cheers, guys.

-Cheers!

-It's unfortunate, guys.

-I think the task...

there's two sides to it.

Primarily, the costs.

The secondary thing, if we'd had higher sales,

that wouldn't have been an issue either.

'The costings has absolutely crippled us for this task.

'I also feel that some of the items we upcycled,'

we upcycled them with the wrong design.

I don't want a row to erupt over the table,

but a third of it was spent on the materials.

I feel blame shouldn't just be on the materials.

I think where the problem lies is maybe we bought the actual items

themselves that were slightly too extensive.

'I'm not too concerned about'

the right choices of stock.

Ultimately, that was guesswork.

'But what we could have watched ourselves on was'

the purchasing of the materials.

PHONE RINGS

-Can you send the candidates in, please?

-Yes, Lord Sugar.

You can go through to the boardroom now.

I'd be interested to hear your analysis as to

why you lost to the other team.

Can I try and attempt to give an answer to this?

-Yeah. You were the project manager, so...

-Exactly.

My main concern on the spending front was that a third of this budget

-that we had was spent on the upcycling.

-Let's get in on this materials here.

-Mm-hmm.

-Go and buy some stuff that needs upcycling, yeah?

-Yes.

So who did you put in charge of the converting of the stuff

to finished product?

The present I allocated the material job to,

basically what we needed and how much, was Gabrielle.

OK, so someone took a flying leap at, in order to convert all of that,

-I need to spend £232 on materials to convert them all, yeah?

-Yes.

-And that was you?

-Yes, on the direction as well of other members of the team

who said, this should be done, this should be done...

To be clear, when you had the list, you were a bit like kids in a sweet shop.

"We'll have some of this, some of that, some legs, some wheels."

None of you actually knew how much you'd spent. You hadn't calculated what you'd buy very carefully.

Gabrielle was shouting out to Jenna, "Buy some of this and that."

Jenna was ordering it and that's how it went.

I literally was given products and told to make it look good. I think in the end

we bought too much stuff that needed to be upcycled.

-That's why we had to buy so much material.

-No, you didn't use it all.

-No, we did.

-Five chairs we upcycled were done with the sacks.

-Mm-hmm.

Four were done with the orange velvet. We had some material on the footstools, that's not a lot.

We did not use £200 worth of material.

What amount of material did you buy, Gabrielle,

-and where did it get used?

-No, no, we used...

-Or paint?

-What? How?

-We needed paint, we needed the wheels which were used.

-We basically had no strategy on what we should buy.

-None at all.

-No strategy on what limit we had.

-You were in charge.

-We had no strategy.

You were given £300 for the day which you did go over anyway

which shows to me that you weren't

-being careful.

-Can I stop you there?

-No, can I just...

-No, because this is just going into...

-No, it's not.

-You gave us £300 to spend.

-Uh-huh.

-And as my sub-team can clarify,

materials needed to be bought to upcycle what we were buying.

We were never given a budget on how much... None of us, including yourself,

no-one knew there was a budget to be spent on any materials.

Why did you have to order £200 of material?

We didn't, we actually ordered 178 at first because you wanted us to do the shabby chic look.

-Then...

-I'm trying to ask you...

-Let me finish.

-Tell me...

-I'll tell you now.

-Individually.

-I'll tell you what we ordered.

-OK.

-The material.

-Um, um, ladies, ladies, ladies.

-Stop shouting.

-Ladies, ladies, ladies.

Um, I hear on the other side from Karren that

you didn't get a plot on what to buy.

You bought a lot of stuff and the shop looked like a tip.

Who chose the majority of the stuff from the dealers

-and places like that?

-That was myself, Ricky and Duane.

Do you know that your team had 200-plus items?

-In total.

-And Tom's team had 50.

-That's a big difference.

-Er, yeah!

-Yeah.

Do you think you messed up the theme of it?

One thing we didn't do, Lord Sugar, which is what's caused this, we didn't do the market research.

Gabrielle, you said you know the local market, bought from it.

-No, I said I'd been there a couple of times.

-In fairness, I think the creative team took that as gospel.

I don't think the Union Jack particularly is Brick Lane, it's not that demographic.

I wanted something that when people go by, it doesn't look like

a junkyard. It looks like maybe some thought's been put into it.

I saw how much Union Jack stuff had been plastered around, I was concerned.

I've made a lot of decisions and took on a lot of responsibility

and a lot of stuff is coming my way.

But if I'm taking responsibility for a lot of this stuff,

what did you take responsibility for?

OK, OK, OK. Let's get off the Union Jack for a minute.

Let's get on to sales here. You see, Gabrielle was the biggest seller.

She sold £414 worth of stuff, 28 items.

Jenna was the next biggest seller, £407 worth of items.

Jane, you're the businesswoman here and you sold £10 worth of stuff.

I did find, Jane, that your sales technique went between

a bit desperate and a bit aggressive.

Possibly I was overenthusiastic.

I apologise if I was but I tried my best to make sure that

as many people as possible went into that shop.

Right. I mean, Laura, I'm sitting here listening.

I've sat here and I'm getting bored now.

I can't get to where the problem lays.

We've spent too much money on materials.

We've bought 200 items, you know,

and not been very selective on the right category of products.

Where do you think the responsibility lays, you two?

I think responsibility lies on the creative team.

I think, Gabrielle, you come up with some ideas which weren't selling on the day.

You did sell extremely well but...

She sold more than you.

She did sell more than me. I wasn't on the sales team...

I think...

OK, listen. Laura.

Who is responsible for the ultimate failure of the task?

I do feel a lot of the blame lies on Gabrielle.

And who else?

I think after hearing that Jane only sold £10,

I'll have to bring Jane back in with me.

Right.

Rest of you, go back to the house.

Right. I'm going to consult with Karren a little longer,

and also Nick who's been listening on this,

so if you three step outside, please.

Laura's got a lot to answer to because everybody I asked

don't seem to know, you know, what the steer was from day one.

Jane is clearly a very successful, very able businesswoman.

Her CV points to some extraordinary things that she's achieved.

But actually I can't put my hand on my heart

and tell you that I've witnessed anything remarkable from her

in any of the tasks that I've been following her on.

Gabrielle seems to be the one which everyone's blaming

for spending far too much money on the refurbishment materials,

but I tell you what, she makes a very good point.

"OK, all right, let's say I did, but what did you do?"

And I haven't been able to get out of anybody else what they did.

PHONE RINGS

Could you send the three of them in, please?

Yes, Lord Sugar.

Lord Sugar will see you now.

So, Gabrielle made the point in the last session.

She said she's sitting here taking a load of flack,

but yet she asked you, "What did you do?"

-I thought it was a good question.

-I did do a good job.

The sales force was motivated.

I mean, they were incredibly motivated, and we did sell.

Ultimately, what I did do, was I did manage the team well,

there was a clear direction, Gabrielle.

-Spend as little...

-They say not, they say not.

As the project manager, why didn't you say to them,

"I only want 50 quid spent on materials."

But you didn't. You just let them go.

What raving lunatic would ever think that it didn't matter how much you spent?

But I was hoping a small amount of common sense would prevail.

As a project manager, some of the common sense should have come from you, also.

I feel there was actually no strategy.

Yes, there was good morale,

but when we asked you about materials and what we should buy, there was no budget.

You gave us £300. In fact, you didn't even specify that we should buy with that.

It did not make sense what was ordered.

I took responsibility and I do not shy away from it, and that's fine.

But I took on a lot of stuff, and what did you do apart from,

you gave a good speech now and again, but if I ask you,

"What did you do that contributed to this?" Go ahead.

Gabrielle, that's a very good speech as well, that's commendable.

Thank you very much. I'm not denying your work ethic, OK?

Yes, I know you put some masking tape on a window. Well done for that.

-Yes.

-And the signage, and the board?

-No, look, listen.

The bottom line is, you, as Karren said,

were like a kid in a sweetie shop buying the materials.

At the end of the day, I was at the centre of everything.

Was she at the centre of everything?

Well, obviously not, because if she was at the centre of everything

-then there would have been a budget for the materials.

-If you was at the centre,

would you have not known how much you was going to spend?

OK, the point is, you have to delegate.

-That's what your position was.

-Yeah, that's great,

I'm asking, what did you delegate?

-I delegated to you...

-Apart from splitting the teams up?

-That is so unfair,

because I was doing the selling and the purchasing.

Yes, we may have had some larger items and we may have bought a lot of stock, but we sold it all.

The sales were not a problem for the team apart from for Jane, obviously.

-No, hold on a second. I asked, did you want me out on the street?

-I didn't tell you to be outside!

-Then you came out to the street and asked me to do flyering.

-Yes, I did ask her to do flyering.

So why are you saying that? Never once did you ask me to go back into the shop, never once.

-Jane.

-You know? So why are you trying to...?

-OK, ladies, ladies, ladies.

I can see that there's a complete conflict here.

Jane, I've looked at your application here.

And you and your husband have a very substantial business.

Yes, Lord Sugar.

I mean, it's very, very good. Very commendable.

So some of your colleagues in the house may be in awe of you

or possibly even concerned that you are a contender.

The only thing is, they might feel that about you, I don't,

cos I ain't seen anything to make me feel that way.

So...

OK, Lord Sugar, just to clarify about the sales.

Yeah, I was out in the street for most of the day,

but I can genuinely say that I worked extremely hard.

I'm quite a serious person.

Not a market trader, I haven't done that before.

I am more comfortable in the business to business environment.

-You know, I...

-Mm-hmm. Right.

Laura.

Why do you feel that you deserve the opportunity of getting

an investment of £250,000 from me?

I have been successful in everything I have ever done,

and I'm ready to, I mean...

You weren't successful this week, was you?

Who should be fired in this particular task, do you think, this week?

Unfortunately, I still feel it's Gabrielle.

Laura should be fired.

And Jane?

I believe Laura should be fired.

Mmm. It's a tough one.

It's down to this particular task, and did you get a plot?

And Laura, I don't think you did get a plot in this task.

Gabrielle, you got blamed for spending too much money,

but I admire your enthusiasm.

And on this particular occasion,

I'm going to let you stay in the process, OK?

Thank you, Lord Sugar.

And it leaves me with just having to make a decision about you two ladies here.

-And...

-Lord Sugar...

-No, I don't want to hear anymore, actually.

-OK.

This is one of the most difficult ones I've had to deal with. Erm...

I have to judge it on the person that's got most potential

in coming into business with me, yeah?

Laura, you lost the plot.

And you didn't run the team very well.

But I have a bigger concern with you, Jane.

You've been in the losing team

three times out of four weeks, yeah?

And nothing I have seen yet

tells me that you are this great business person,

so on that basis, Jane, you're fired.

OK. Thank you anyway. Thank you.

Now, walking out that door, there,

may be a great business partner for me.

But I have got a gut feeling.

And you, Gabrielle, the reason you're staying here today

is because I think you've been unfairly picked upon.

OK, off you go.

-Thank you, Lord Sugar.

-Thank you very much.

I don't think you have to worry about Jane.

She's obviously a very clever businesswoman.

The application, on paper, is unbelievable.

All I can say is that I didn't see anything in the past four weeks.

And that's my gut feeling, this is my boardroom,

this is my process, this is my money.

Lord Sugar mightn't have wanted me,

but I will be extremely successful in everything that I do.

And hopefully in a few years' time he'll look back and say,

"I shouldn't have fired her."

I think everything on paper should be that Laura should go,

but I think that Lord Sugar will send Jane home.

I personally think Jane.

-Laura was a good motivator, in that respect, she was.

-Yeah, no, I thought really well of Laura.

But we did make some strategic mistakes. I think Laura should get fired.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well done, well done!

We did not know who was going, and he ripped every one of us to shreds.

-What happened to Jane?

-Basically, what he said, was, he did say he had this feeling in his gut.

He said, "I've got to think about who I want to go into business with."

But she was also shocked, because she did believe she did a good job.

So, you know, for her I think it was a complete, like, "where did that come from?"

-And she wasn't prepared.

-It wasn't pleasant.

In the fight for Lord Sugar's quarter million pound investment,

12 candidates remain.

Next time...

Your task this week is to come up with a new fitness programme.

You jab, jab, foot across, elbow.

It's survival of the fittest...

-So what's this called? Give us a name for it.

-"Hip Groove."

-"The Swing-a-ling."

..and loudest.

-It's the same thing again, we have an opinion and you just don't like it.

-No, no, no, no.

But in the boardroom, one's unfit for business.

I did warn you about doing that, and that's a bad management move, that is.

You're fired.

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