Entertainment

Last two candidates go head-to-head in The Apprentice final

Scarlett Allen-Horton and Carina Lepore are in with a chance of becoming Lord Sugar’s business partner.
Scarlett Allen-Horton and Carina Lepore are in with a chance of becoming Lord Sugar’s business partner. Scarlett Allen-Horton and Carina Lepore are in with a chance of becoming Lord Sugar’s business partner.

Two businesswomen will go head-to-head in The Apprentice final in a bid to win £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar and hear the words “you’re hired”.

Recruitment company owner Scarlett Allen-Horton and artisan bakery boss Carina Lepore have been whittled down from 16 entrepreneurs in a bid to become Lord Sugar’s business partner.

During Wednesday’s final, candidates fired earlier in the series returned to help the two remaining contestants bring their business plans to life.

Lord Alan Sugar
Lord Alan Sugar Lord Sugar will tell one businesswoman ‘you’re hired’ during The Apprentice final (Anthony Devlin/PA)

Allen-Horton and Lepore were summoned to London’s Sky Garden skyscraper and told they would need to produce a digital screen and a TV advert for their businesses.

They would both then pitch their ideas to Lord Sugar and 250 experts at City Hall.

Both finalists picked their teams from previous candidates and got to work.

Lepore wanted a family feel for her bakery and opted for the name Lepore’s Artisan Bakehouse.

Her digital screen showed a customer raising a piece of bread to their mouths and slapping away someone else’s hand.

The tagline was “too good to share” while the business’s slogan was “the finest in family baking”.

Carina Lepore
Carina Lepore Carina Lepore is one of the finalists on the latest series of The Apprentice (BBC/Boundless/Ray Burmiston/PA) (Ray Burmiston/BBC/Boundless)

Meanwhile, Allen-Horton and her team were working away on her recruitment business, which had the aim of  “promoting female, minority and diverse talent through the ranks”.

They decided on the name Stanton Lily while the logo was the profile of a woman’s face with cogs where the brain should be.

Lord sugar’s aide Baroness Karren Brady was unimpressed with the aesthetic choices.

The next challenge for the candidates was to film TV adverts for their respective businesses.

Lepore’s team recorded a prison-themed commercial, with the bakery’s bread being described as “worth the time”.

An impressed Lepore called it “top class”.

The candidates working for Allen-Horton’s recruitment business settled on an advert showing a woman jumping into the driving seat of an invisible car while Survivor’s Eye Of The Tiger from the Rocky films played.

Scarlett Allen-Horton
Scarlett Allen-Horton Recruitment firm boss Scarlett Allen-Horton is a finalist on The Apprentice (BBC/Boundless/Ray Burmiston/PA) (Ray Burmiston/BBC/Boundless)

Again, the watching Lady Brady was unimpressed while Allen-Horton said it was “more cheesy” than she would have liked.

Both teams asked members of the public for feedback on their work before the finalists pitched their businesses to Lord Sugar and the panel of experts.

Both women then had a showdown in the boardroom.

The Apprentice airs at 9pm on BBC One.