A BRUSH with a team from hit BBC show The Apprentice showed a Northumberland business just how tough the tasks set for Sir Alan Sugar’s candidates can be.
Corbridge-based Crystal Imprints, which produces impressions of hands, feet and paws cast in glass, bumped into a team from the television programme at The Baby Show in London’s Earl’s Court last October.
Paul Connell and Diane Hart have been using the shows as part of their ambitions to expand the brand nationwide and were based just a few stands away from The Apprentice team selling birthing pools.
Mr Connell said: “It was a surprise when we found out that The Apprentice task was being filmed at the show, but I suppose we should have guessed what was going on when we kept seeing Sir Alan’s right hand man Nick Hewer and a film crew following the sales team.
“However we just thought he must have a business interest in the products and filming isn’t that unusual at these shows. Obviously the organisers weren’t allowed to tell anyone what was happening.”
He reckons that selling a product to 25,000 visitors who know nothing about it is a much tougher task than armchair entrepreneurs watching The Apprentice realise.
“Attending these shows is a steep learning curve and is quite different to sitting in our shop talking to customers who’ve often come to see us anyway,” said Mr Connell.
