Lord Sugar hires his Apprentice for 2018
Spoiler warning: This story reveals who wins
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BBC/Boundless Taylor Herring
After a gruelling 12 weeks, the winner of the The Apprentice has been hired.
This time last year, Lord Sugar chose both finalists to be his business partners, for the first time in the BBC show’s history.
But he said of this year’s finalists: “They’re both risky”.
However, he chose Sian Gabbidon to win the full £250,000 investment in her swimwear business and a 50/50 business partnership with the tycoon.
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BBC/Boundless Taylor Herring
Sian Gabbidon’s swimwear brand won the backing of Lord Sugar
Gabbidon, 25, from Leeds owns and runs a swimwear brand, making it Lord Sugar’s first investment in a fashion business in the show’s history.
Gabbidon predicted her victory in her audition, saying: “When Lord Sugar picks me as his business partner, we’re gonna be in there like swimwear and we’re gonna make a massive splash in the business”.
She beat 22-year-old Camilla Ainsworth, who runs a dairy-free alternative nut milk business.
“Sass is important and my business brings an abundance of sass,” she said in her audition for the programme.
In the final, Ainsworth and Gabbidon were joined by their former Apprentice colleagues in an intensive three-day challenge where they had to create a new brand for their company, produce an advert for the London Underground and edit a television advert.
After bringing their business plans to life, the finalists had to pitch it to a room full of industry experts and Lord Sugar at London’s City Hall.
“I think we do have the best two, there’s no question of it,” said Lord Sugar before making his deliberation.
Claude Littner said of Gabbidon: “She is a very clever and ambitious young woman, who’s obviously got a flair for design.”
Of Ainsworth’s nut milk business, he said: “She is offering a completely different product.”
Afterwards, they all met in the boardroom where Gabbidon was crowned the winner.
Almost eight million people tuned into last year’s final of The Apprentice where Sugar pulled out the ultimate plot-twist by partnering up with both finalists, Sarah Lynn and James White.
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