Week 5 of The Apprentice and Sir Alan made a house call to wake the candidates up at 7:30am. The candidates were told they will be visiting farms producing ice cream and will be required to create new flavours to sell. After last weeks arguments in the boardroom, Sir Alan decided that Claire will be team leader for Renascence this week, along with Lucinda for team Alpha.

Having decided on the flavours each team is going to produce, (for Alpha, avocado with chilli and a toffee apple flavour; for Renascence, cider with Elda flour) the teams moved on to selling. Alpha arranged an appointment to sell their flavour to an Italian ice cream parlour that happened to make their own ice cream, which even Lucinda agreed was a mistake. Instead Alpha decided to target a chain of cinemas for which they managed to strike a deal for 100 litres of the avocado ice cream. Renascence also decided to target the same chain of cinemas, but were beaten to the deal by Alpha. Not wanting to be beaten, Renascence managed to secure a deal for an independent retailer for 200 litres of ice cream.

In the boardroom, both teams were full of praise for their team leaders. However, when down to the result, Claire led her team to victory and won this week’s task with a margin of ₤800. As such, they were rewarded with a trip to Bowood House in Wiltshire. With Lucinda’s team losing this week, the debate began in the boardroom. The main point of error, picked up by Sir Alan, was the sales team did deals which gave exclusive rights to sell the ice cream across retail chains. Because of this, Lucinda decided to bring Jennifer and Lindi back into the boardroom. As second in command and responsible for sales, Sir Alan made his decision. Lindi you’re fired!

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A month into Series 4 of The Apprentice, and both our blog and forum have been covering the trials and tribulations of the candidates.

The Apprentice Forum has covered the losers week by week, with discussion on whether or not they were the right candidate to go.

After Week 4, Daddio commented how

“Lucinda dodged a bullet again. Some people have “victim” written on them, and the others have sensed weakness and smelt blood.”

Sci_co added

“That was just annoying watching Alex in the boardroom, he really needed to take responsibility and in my opinion he should have gone for being completely spineless. I loved Margret attacking them, brilliant to watch. Definitely want more of that in the shows to come.”

We also have a poll asking if the team leader should take more responsibility for the group when they fail. Currently 80% of voters say “Yes sometimes” the team leader should take more responsibility.

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It’s all change for Week 4 of The Apprentice. The teams are now mixed, forcing the alliances formed in previous weeks to be split. Meeting at the Wallace Collection, Sir Alan told the teams they will be taking photos of customers and selling them from the Blue Water shopping centre, the largest in Europe.

After avoiding a firing by Sir Alan last week and wanting to prove himself this week, Simon put himself forward to lead team Renascence. Leading the Alpha group this week is Helene. Both teams decide the theme of their photo shoot and source the appropriate props and equipment.

The next day, both groups prepare their photography sets ready for the shoot. Renascence decided on a traditional red carpet theme, whilst Alpha went for look-a-like celebrities to draw in the punters.

It became clear very quickly that both teams were struggling with this week’s task. Lucinda, had difficulty working the technology for Alpha, whilst the photo processing department for Renascence lost the order of the photos.

Back in the boardroom, it was revealed that Alpha won this week’s task with their prize, dinner on board a yacht. With Renascence left in the boardroom, the infighting began between all members, even more so when down to the final three. When Sir Alan asked who should be fired, Alex named Claire and Claire said Simon. With Claire continually arguing her point of view, Sir Alan became annoyed and was extremely close to firing her. Instead, he instantly sent her out of the boardroom and back to the house, whilst also stating that she will be team leader next week. With two left in the boardroom, Sir Alan decided that the task had got away from him, with the responsibly lying at the feet of the team leader. Subsequently, Simon was the next apprentice to be fired by Sir Alan.

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Week 3 of The Apprentice, and the candidates were told to meet at the Tate Modern in London. Here, Sir Alan named Ian and Sara as the team leaders for this week’s task which required them to turn an average pub into a successful themed restaurant, well at least for a day.

The boys decided on Italian, with the girls routing for a Bollywood theme. Kevin stepped up to the plate and decided to be the head chef for the boys, with team leader Sara for the girls. Having established their theme, both teams set about sourcing ingredients for their dishes. The girls purchased their ingredients from local suppliers and bargained prices down to maximise profits. Instead, the boys had to fork out for supermarket prices, having left it late in the day. Concerned with overspending and running low on ingredients, the boys also resorted to serving half pizzas to customers!

Back at the boardroom, it was revealed the girls managed to generate double the profit of the boys, winning the task for this week. Ian decided to bring head chef Kevin and Simon back into the boardroom. Concerned at the lack of leadership coming from Ian, Kevin decided to call a meeting before dinner service the night before. However Ian, desperately trying to shift the blame, conveniently couldn’t remember Kevin ever calling the meeting. However, Sir Alan could see through the cover up and as team leader decided Ian was the next apprentice to be fired!

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Week 2 of The Apprentice, and after last week’s poor performance by both teams it was time to show they had lifted their game. After Reaf Bjayou escaped being fired by Sir Alan last week and looking to disprove any question marks over his performance, he put himself forward for the role of team leader for the boys this week. For the girls, Jenny Celerier also put her hand up for the role of team leader.

This week, Sir Alan set the teams the task of operating a laundry business. Allowed to use industrial laundry services for one day only, the winning team will be the one who made the most money at the end of the task. Additionally Sir Alan lined up a big hotel offer for the team with the most suitable pitch.

Both teams developed a pricing structure, for the boys £1 - £2 for most items depending on size, for the girls a fixed £4.99 for every item. With the prices agreed, the girls were first to make their pitch to the hotel manager. With 1000 items to be laundered the girls priced the job at £5000! As the girls did not move on the offer, it was time for the boys to pitch. With their flexible pricing structure, the boys were closer to usual price to launder that quantity. Eventually the boys closed the deal, agreeing at £200 for the lot.

Having lost the hotel deal, the girls went door-to-door in the hope of getting business. Jennifer Maguire and Lindi Mngaza approached a fish monger needing a pile of dirty clothes to be cleaned. Normally costing £60, the owner was amazed to find the girls would launder the entire pile for only £15 all in!

Reaf Bjayou, Kevin Shaw and Michael Sophocles continued looking for business, whilst with a van load of laundry from the hotel, Lee McQueen, Simon Smith, Ian Stringer and Alex Wotherspoon started on the mammoth task of washing and pressing every item. With Simon having worked in laundry service before, the task seemed to running like a military operation.

By 2:00am, the end of the allocated time to use the industrial laundry services, the boys had finished every item, whilst the girls had to rely on the morning to continue ironing some of their items back at the house.

The next day, upon handing back the washed items the girls discover that some of the items are missing. Not only this, but realising they are low on cash for the task; they ask customers if they would like to include a tip for their good service!

When it came to the boardroom, the girls lost the task with Jenny, Lucinda and Shazia in the final three. It was a close call between team leader Jenny and Shazia who was in charge of recording every item of clothing when returning them to the customer. Having stated at the beginning of the task not to lose a single sock, let alone two shirts, Sir Alan named Shazia as the second apprentice to be fired.

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