Media News
Belfast Apprentice gets the sack
Thursday 21 May 2009
The 22-year-old trainee stockbroker got the sack after team Empire lost a task to sell baby accessories.
Sir Alan Sugar told candidates to interview suppliers of baby equipment, select two products, and then sell them to a potential of 10,000 customers at the Baby Show in London's Earls Court.
He decided that parents were best-equipped to run the task and nominated father-of-one James McQuillan as manager for Empire and mother-of-two Lorraine Tighe to head up Ignite.
Ignite chose a padded toddler helmet and a travel pushchair, in the episode shown last night on BBC1. Empire struggled to agree on their second product, but selected a home birthing pool and an expensive hand-made rocking horse.
Empire had total sales amounting to £722, while Ignite came out firmly on top with total sales of more than £1,600.
Clarke from Belfast said prior to the showdown in the boardroom: "There is absolutely no way in hell I'm going home today. I'm making it to the final."
McQuillan brought Debra Barr and Clarke back to the boardroom - the fourth appearance for all three candidates in the final showdown.
Clarke insisted: "The reason you shouldn't fire me Sir Alan is because I have shown you that I have got raw business talent, I've shown you that I've got raw acumen."
Sir Alan told him to back his claims with facts, but Clarke continued: "Absolutely. I've shown you that I can be a complete grafter, I've shown you that conceptually I can..." Sir Alan intervened again: "No, no, you have done it again! You're telling me that you have shown me and I'm asking you where!"
Clarke then resorted to a familiar claim: "I can compete at a world class level. I've had an army scholarship to Sandhurst."
An unimpressed Sir Alan said: "Don't start banging on about bloody Sandhurst again.
"I was in the Jewish Lad's Brigade, Stamford Hill Division, but it didn't make me sell computers when I got older!
"I've had this Sandhurst group in here before and one of them couldn't cook a sausage on a baked bean can so that does not mean anything to me."
Sir Alan delivered his verdict, saying: "Ben I think you think quite a lot of yourself. You over-hype yourself a little bit but at certain stages in this process I was seeing some quite bright light at the end of a long tunnel... but I feel that the light at the end of the tunnel has gone out quite frankly. And I think it is time Ben for you to leave this process: You're fired!"
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