The Apprentice

The Apprentice is back this week with a new batch of ambitious entrepreneurs seeking to demonstrate their commercial insight and business sense to stay out of the firing line. There’s a £250,000 investment at stake and the chance to go into a business partnership with Lord Sugar. Over the course of 12 tough tasks, the 18 candidates will be whittled down until just one victor remains. And plenty of sparks are set to fly in the boardroom along the way! Each week the budding entrepreneurs will be divided into two teams - led by designated Project Managers - that lock horns under the watchful eyes of Lord Sugar's advisor Baroness Karren Brady and new aide Claude Littner. Follow the link to find out more about this years candidates. 

The Candidates

Spider Woman

A t-shirt designed to look like the spider brooch worn by Lady Hale at the Supreme Court on Tuesday has sold out in less than 24 hours. Balcony Shirts, a business based in Boris Johnson’s constituency of Uxbridge, replicated the outfit worn by Lady Hale when she delivered her unlawful verdict earlier this week. The business decided that they wanted to capture the popular enthusiasm for Lady Hale and raise some money for charity in the process. Their t-shirts, which went on sale on eBay, cost £10 and would donate 30% of the proceeds to housing and homelessness charity, Shelter. The item proved immensely popular and sold out in less than 24 hours. The brand owner, Scott, announced on Twitter they’d had to stop taking orders at 6,500 units because they were worried about not fulfilling the demand. That number of sales means they have raised a projected £18,000 for Shelter.

Spider T-Shirt

P.L.T

McDonald’s in Canada is launching a new plant-based burger. The PLT (Plant Lettuce Tomato) burger uses a Beyond Meat burger, served on a sesame seed bun with tomato, lettuce, pickles, onions, mayo-style sauce, ketchup, mustard and a slice of processed cheddar cheese. Beyond Meat burgers are completely vegan patties made to look, cook and even bleed like beefburgers. Of course, including all the toppings on the PLT mean it’s not vegan as cheese contains dairy and mayo contains eggs – but the fast food restaurant says it can be customised. The burger is going on trial in Canada for the next month but nothing has been mentioned about it being brought to the UK yet.

PLT

Luxury Kit Kat

Bespoke KitKats are expected to be one of this year’s must-have Christmas presents after its owner, the food giant Nestlé, revealed the upmarket KitKat Chocolatory range. Either via a dedicated website, or by visiting a pop-up stall in John Lewis’s flagship London store, shoppers will be able to order a custom KitKat from nearly 1,500 possible flavour combinations. The ingredient choices include rose petals and cocoa nibs and there is the option to coat the fingers in ruby chocolate. It has also produced “special edition” flavours – a surprising line-up that includes marmalade, Earl Grey and “whisky & ginger”. But a luxury KitKat comes with a luxury price tag. The 150g eight-fingered bespoke bars – which will be made to order in Yorkshire – cost £14 (a 41.5g four-fingered KitKat usually costs 65p). The special editions start at £7.50.

Kit Kat

Thomas Cooked

Founded in Market Harborough in 1841 by businessman Thomas Cook, the fledgling company organised railway outings for members of the local temperance movement. Some 178 years later, it is a huge global travel group, with annual sales of £9bn, 19 million customers a year and 22,000 staff operating in 16 countries. However, just as the travel world has progressed from temperance day trips, so the modern business and leisure market is also changing, and at a far faster pace than in previous decades. The firm is being buffeted by a number of factors: financial, social and even meteorological. As well as weather issues, and stiff competition from online travel agents and low-cost airlines, there are other disruptive factors, including political unrest around the world.  The tour operator's financial difficulties have mounted over the past year, culminating in a refinancing plan in August led by its biggest shareholder, Chinese company Fosun. But banks now want the company to raise extra funds and it could fall into administration within days unless it finds £200m.

Thomas Cook

James Dyson Award

A biodegradable bioplastic made from red algae and waste products from the fishing industry has won the UK section of the 2019 James Dyson Award. Created by Lucy Hughes,  MarinaTex is a translucent and flexible sheet material made from all natural ingredients. It does not require special infrastructure to dispose of and can biodegrade naturally in 4-6 weeks. This makes it ideal for applications in packaging. To the touch, MarinaTex feels a lot like plastic, but the similarities end there. In fact, it is stronger, safer and much more sustainable than its doppelgänger. The material is relatively low tech and does not require much energy to produce. 

James Dyson Award

Robot Future

More than 100 fully autonomous cleaning robots are coming to Singapore this year, made by local manufacturer Lionsbot. Ella tells jokes as she cleans the floor in the island nation's National Gallery... but not everyone is convinced.  It has a $1k a month rental fee, only takes breaks to recharge every three hours, and never needs a sick day. It is hopefully going to help issues with labour shortages in Singapore this year. Is this the future of the workforce?

Robot Future

iPhone 11

Apple has unveiled its iPhone 11 range of handsets, which feature more cameras than before and a processor that has been updated to be faster while consuming less power. The company said the two Pro models would last between four to five hours longer than their XS predecessors. But it did not launch a 5G model, and some rumoured features were missing. Apple also revealed a new version of its smartwatch, which features an "always on" display for the first time. Apple currently accounts for 49% of the global smartwatch market, according to research firm IDC. It is also the UK's top-selling smartphone brand by a wide margin. Apple have however experienced a bigger drop in demand for new handsets than many of its rivals over the past year. At a time when consumers are holding onto their handsets for longer before upgrading, that could place a further constraint on sales - especially in countries where 5G networks have already launched, such as the UK.

iPhone 11

KFC Ditches Healthier Foods

KFC has abandoned its drive to introduce healthier baked chicken products on its menu because nobody wanted to eat them. A senior executive at the fast food chain revealed the move was a "disaster" and short-lived during a Public Health England conference. It followed disappointing sales of the Brazer grilled chicken sandwich launched in 2011, its 2012 Rancher sandwich and a pulled chicken product which came out in 2015."It didn't go brilliantly well. We tried and we failed to launch a non-fried product," said Jenny Packwood, head of brand engagement at KFC UK and Ireland. "We were unable to sustain sales. They were just not selling."It's no good launching a product which looks good nutritionally but then nobody buys. "It doesn't improve the health of the nation and in terms of sustainability it is a disaster."

KFC Healthy Foods

Deliveroo TV Advert Banned

A TV ad for Deliveroo has been banned for suggesting the food delivery firm could deliver anywhere in the UK. The ad, shown in March, showed various scenes of people using the Deliveroo app and having food delivered to them, all in unusual places or circumstances.  The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it was "likely to mislead" because it wrongly implied delivery "was unrestricted throughout the UK". In the ad someone is shown receiving a delivery in a field after apparently tunnelling underground to escape from prison. An astronaut is also shown receiving a delivery in space. There were 22 complaints from people who, knowing that Deliveroo did not deliver to their areas, said that the ad was misleading.

Deliveroo Advert

Young E-Commerce Entrepreneur

The London schoolgirl running her own e-commerce business. After selling old Christmas presents and teaching herself how to code 14-year-old Cara set up an online retail business. She’s been running it from her bedroom in London for a year and has already paid for her parents to go on holiday – twice! Watch the clip to see how it she does it all!

E-Commerce Entrepreneur

More More More

Two exciting new Nestlé chocolate bars are coming to the UK and Ireland with the promise of ‘MORE’ for KitKat and Yorkie fans. The delicious new bars come with more fruit, nuts and cereal and more protein* and fibre* with both a ‘Raspberry & Hazelnut’ KitKat Chunky and an ‘Oats, Apple and Cinnamon’ Yorkie, forming the new ‘MORE’ range. Each bar is 30% less sugar*, contains real fruit and is source of protein. The new Yorkie MORE is also a source of fibre. The launch is another step in Nestlé’s ongoing work to innovate and develop its confectionery to provide better choices. Nestlé’s Global R&D Centre for Confectionery, based in York, has developed the new range which is just the latest in a long line of achievements that have come from Nestlé’s continued efforts to find new ways to improve confectionery and reduce sugar without compromising on taste and quality.

Nestle More

Pick & Cheese

The world’s first conveyor belt cheese restaurant launches this week in London. Pick & Cheese, at the new Kerb street food market in Covent Garden, allows diners to pluck Cornish Gouda and Renegade Monk from its milky carousel and sip interesting wines while doing so. There are 25 cheeses available at any one time, as well as a couple of hot dishes and plates of charcuterie.The restaurant is the work of Mathew Carver, who launched the Cheese Truck, famed for its toasties at festivals around the world, in 2014. The idea is to be accessible, too: prices start at £2.95 and generous cheese portions come on colour coded-plates; £5.25 is the most expensive.

Pick & Cheese