Apprentice 2016 thread
Discussion
Trabi601 said:
£250k to launch a new food brand is a drop in the ocean.
There are dozens of bakeries out there which can do what she can do - but there are also lots of bakeries going bankrupt each year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wale...
Ferraris bakery also went under less than a decade ago.
Brace's are also closing a plant - OK, they are mainly bread producers, but they do some cake lines, too.
Maybe Lord Alan can see a gap and a niche to chase, but £250k will be burned very, very quickly in food production.
Perhaps, but when people can buy a loaf of bread for 50p in the supermarket they won't look to spend a lot more. If someone goes into a coffee shop they don't really look at the prices. I've been out plenty of times with Mrs CC, she always wants to stop for coffee, we'll order 2 coffees and 2 cakes and just hand over the card without really paying attention to the cost. Scary, but we'll probably pay between £10 and £15 There are dozens of bakeries out there which can do what she can do - but there are also lots of bakeries going bankrupt each year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wale...
Ferraris bakery also went under less than a decade ago.
Brace's are also closing a plant - OK, they are mainly bread producers, but they do some cake lines, too.
Maybe Lord Alan can see a gap and a niche to chase, but £250k will be burned very, very quickly in food production.
Both finalists seem to have been running their businesses for several years. Do they not already ready have business names or branding? There is no mention of either in the business plans at the interview stage, so is it just more staged for TV nonsense that they have to re-name and re-brand their businesses in a few short hours?
nicanary said:
Production in Wales - canny choice. Subsidies for start-ups and much local government assistance. Sugar isn't stupid. Loada of locals willing to work for minimum wage, loads of empty bakeries all ready amd waiting.
I think we need a new thread called "Will Alana Make It?" with the spelling error and the narna weird name (nana surely). I do wish her well but looking at it coldly I cannot see it succeeding. Good luck to her. I think LS fancied a final challenge before he thinks he's a bit too old for it all. He's done the whole 'design and get a product to market' thing before and although I was convinced that Courtney would get the hired finger in the final, he fooled us all 
Surprisingly, I thought they both did well in the presentations, that must be nerve wracking stuff.
Another heavily edited series ends then but I watched it avidly and I look forward to next years.
Surprisingly, I thought they both did well in the presentations, that must be nerve wracking stuff.
Another heavily edited series ends then but I watched it avidly and I look forward to next years.
CoolHands said:
I can't even be bothered to watch the final.
+ the prices for those brownies is ridiculous noones going to pay that. Will never hear of her of the company again.
I also agree £3 is too much for a brownie. She's been doing it for years and turns over £70,000 at the moment. Sounds like there is a market.+ the prices for those brownies is ridiculous noones going to pay that. Will never hear of her of the company again.
Driver101 said:
I also agree £3 is too much for a brownie. She's been doing it for years and turns over £70,000 at the moment. Sounds like there is a market.
There is. Artisan food festivals and the like. Where she works like hell to make the cakes, then her and her boyfriend man the stand to sell them. She was very vocal about gross margins - but she's not taking a proper wage from the business, and it appears neither is her boyfriend. She also has no real commercial overheads.Even at £3 a piece, once you actually commercialise this, rather than it being home business, it all falls apart.
In the Dragons Den, it's one of those where Peter Jones etc., would say it was a nice family business that will eventually earn the sole trader a living wage - but it's not an investment.
I have no idea why Lord Sugar got into it. Suspect it's the production company / broadcaster applying an influence - he's had cake businesses in the final before and dismissed them.
Trabi601 said:
I have no idea why Lord Sugar got into it. Suspect it's the production company / broadcaster applying an influence - he's had cake businesses in the final before and dismissed them.
I can't see that. It's his money and I'm pretty sure he won't let anyone influence where he puts his £250k.He'll have seen something in the idea/business though. Didn't that Tom (I think? Designed that twirly hair tangle teaser thing?) who won it a few years back come up with some idea for office chairs as his business plan ? But LS seemed to be saying after he'd made him the winner that they'd have a chat about what the business would actually be.
Driver101 said:
CoolHands said:
I can't even be bothered to watch the final.
+ the prices for those brownies is ridiculous noones going to pay that. Will never hear of her of the company again.
I also agree £3 is too much for a brownie. She's been doing it for years and turns over £70,000 at the moment. Sounds like there is a market.+ the prices for those brownies is ridiculous noones going to pay that. Will never hear of her of the company again.
I think here biggest problem will be maintaining quality with out sourced production
technodup said:
nd yet at the bottom of the very same page there is a 'due to high demand...' warning...
I wouldn't pay £3 for a bit of cake but plenty will. Whether enough will to suit Sugar is another matter.
The 'high demand' is because she's been on telly and she's trying to make them herself, in a small kitchen. There are only a finite number of hours in the day.I wouldn't pay £3 for a bit of cake but plenty will. Whether enough will to suit Sugar is another matter.
Trabi601 said:
The 'high demand' is because she's been on telly and she's trying to make them herself, in a small kitchen. There are only a finite number of hours in the day.
I realise that. But it shows people are buying them.I don't know nor care about the 'artisan' food market though, so have no idea if will work out longer term. She'll not be getting £3 from me.
The best part of the final for me was the bumbling Oliver smash it with the branding and packaging. If that's what is going to be used going forward, he should get a cut!
He might not of a been a leader and was a bit tim nice but dim but I reckon he had a better business brain than any of the others.
He might not of a been a leader and was a bit tim nice but dim but I reckon he had a better business brain than any of the others.
Ken Sington said:
Both finalists seem to have been running their businesses for several years. Do they not already ready have business names or branding? There is no mention of either in the business plans at the interview stage, so is it just more staged for TV nonsense that they have to re-name and re-brand their businesses in a few short hours?
And they also have to let the people who weren't good evougj, help them out. Load of bs lol
Even if you only sold 5000 pieces a week that's significant money.
Yes the margin will go down but I bet there would still be a couple of hundred k in profit. Start multiplying that by just 4 or 5 and it's getting on for proper money. Obviously there's going to be all sorts of new costs but if they can sell in volume it's going to go well.
Quality can be adhered to, it's a recipe, stick to it. Any one of us could make those if we had the recipe, care and some practice.
Plenty of people about who will spend that. I love the gu deserts, they seem to have expanded from a couple of ganache type things to all sorts. They aren't cheap, quite often I see them and think, oh nice I'll have that. But then I look at the price, some of them are a few quid, I look on the shelf and there's two left! Someone's buying them. They must knock out thousands a week.
Yes the margin will go down but I bet there would still be a couple of hundred k in profit. Start multiplying that by just 4 or 5 and it's getting on for proper money. Obviously there's going to be all sorts of new costs but if they can sell in volume it's going to go well.
Quality can be adhered to, it's a recipe, stick to it. Any one of us could make those if we had the recipe, care and some practice.
Plenty of people about who will spend that. I love the gu deserts, they seem to have expanded from a couple of ganache type things to all sorts. They aren't cheap, quite often I see them and think, oh nice I'll have that. But then I look at the price, some of them are a few quid, I look on the shelf and there's two left! Someone's buying them. They must knock out thousands a week.
Zammy said:
The best part of the final for me was the bumbling Oliver smash it with the branding and packaging. If that's what is going to be used going forward, he should get a cut!
He might not of a been a leader and was a bit tim nice but dim but I reckon he had a better business brain than any of the others.
It was all that experience of running his 'sausage empire'! Glad he felt he had redeemed himself. He might not of a been a leader and was a bit tim nice but dim but I reckon he had a better business brain than any of the others.
But yes, he definitely reminded me of the opening credits of Harry Enfield's TV show
https://youtu.be/vpiKSpawixo
Bluedot said:
I can't see that. It's his money and I'm pretty sure he won't let anyone influence where he puts his £250k.
He'll have seen something in the idea/business though. Didn't that Tom (I think? Designed that twirly hair tangle teaser thing?) who won it a few years back come up with some idea for office chairs as his business plan ? But LS seemed to be saying after he'd made him the winner that they'd have a chat about what the business would actually be.
Yes. Sugar told him to continue to create those stylefiles or whatever they're called and to this day, those, and variations of them are what Tom still appears to be creating.He'll have seen something in the idea/business though. Didn't that Tom (I think? Designed that twirly hair tangle teaser thing?) who won it a few years back come up with some idea for office chairs as his business plan ? But LS seemed to be saying after he'd made him the winner that they'd have a chat about what the business would actually be.
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