Yahoo News Apprentice winner 2018: Sian Gabbidon wins Lord Sugar's investment after impressing with swimwear brand pitch
Lord Sugar has found a new business partner in Sian Gabbidon after a tense The Apprentice final.
Swimwear designer and brand owner Gabbidon beat nut milk enthusiast Camilla Ainsworth in Sunday night’s final, having both pitched their ideas to Lord Sugar and industry experts at City Hall.
Gabbidon snapped up the £250,000 investment and the chance to work with the business mogul after impressing in the 12-week competition, leading Sugar to take a chance at breaking into the “crowded market”.
In the final boardroom, Lord Sugar said: “Sian, it’s a crowded market – that’s a big, big concern for me, but you are an expert in your field, and you are a good designer, there’s no question of that.
“I think that yours is a growing market [Camilla], and yours is a massive market [Sian], it’s very tough for me to make a decision.
“But on reflection, Sian, you have a great aptitude and a talent for design – you’re going to be my business partner.”
Speaking of his decision on You’re Hired, he added that he had picked Gabbidon for her “great design skills and business potential”.
Ecstatic Gabbidon, 26, gushed: “I’m just absolutely over the moon that I’ve won this investment and I’m going to be working with Lord Sugar.
“I love what I do, I love fashion, and he’s all about business - so to put us together is just going to be ridiculous, the possibilities are endless.”
Lord Sugar’s aides Claude Littner and Baroness Karren Brady also sung “ambitious” Gabbidon’s praises with Littner being particularly impressed with her designing skills and speed.
Brady said: “I’m just slightly concerned she was completely naïve to the whole manufacturing process, and I think Alan, that’s where you step in, because you do understand about the manufacturing process, and you can educate her about how to do it.”
The Apprentice will return to BBC One.
