It was week seven, and only nine candidates remained in the battle to become Sir Alan's apprentice. Following their early morning call, everyone was excited when told they must pack an overnight bag. Anticipating foreign travel to sunny climates, one candidate packed sunglasses and flip flops but it wasn’t long before any ideas of luxury trips were dispelled when they learnt that their destination was the North West. Each team had to choose two items from a selection of products created by entrepreneurial designers which they then had to sell to the trade. Sir Alan started the ball rolling by arranging appointments with a large hardware store and the designer furniture store Heal’s. The rest was up to the candidates and each team independently contacted Catriona Marshall, Commercial Director at Pets at Home, based in Handforth. The first team was Empire, represented by Debra and Howard, who made a pitch with the "Lovers' Lead". They were soon followed by Ignite, represented by Jasmina and Lorraine, who presented the cat playhouse. When asked for her opinion on how the candidates performed Catriona explained that “Debra was very professional but Howard made no impact whatsoever. We liked the uniqueness of their product so it was a relatively easy sell-in. Lorraine and Jasmina were likable but not convincing. Their sales pitch was far fetched, claiming that we could sell 20,000 units in a few days!” When asked about Sir Alan’s decision to fire the cocky estate agent, Catriona said “I think he was absolutely right! Philip contributed nothing but hot air this week. Clearly his mind was on Kate and not the task .... They might have been better selling the Lovers' Lead!” Catriona felt that Debra was the most impressive while Jasmina came a close second but expects that Ben and Kate will be in the final two. “Whilst I was almost screaming at the telly “sack Ben” in the initial weeks, I have a feeling he might just win.” Catriona has been asked to judge on The Apprentice twice and described the experience as “surprisingly slick”. “We got a call in the morning and a couple of hours later the production crew arrived, set up and gave us a two minute briefing. Shortly afterward the candidates arrived and it was filmed in one take. It was over before we knew it and we were on with the rest of the day! Easy and good fun!” Catriona hadn’t watched the series before she first took part in 2006 but told us that after that she was hooked. “It's daft, frustrating and doesn't reflect business but it's great TV.” Catriona explained the first time they were featured they weren't prepared for the response to the programme, “ the following morning we were inundated with requests for the doggie wardrobe, an item invented on the show, none had been manufactured and we had many disappointed customers until we had one custom made a few weeks later. This time we thought we'd play it safe and have ordered 2000 Lovers’ Leads and 1000 cat playhouses. Let's hope we can sell them!” Should you wish to share dog walking with your partner or purchase a cardboard playhouse for your cat the products featured on last night’s Apprentice are available from Pets at Home web site
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