Apprentice 2024 winner is HIRED! Gym owner Rachel Woolford, 28, beats pie shop boss Phil Turner to Lord Sugar’s £250k investment
Rachel Woolford has been named the winner of The Apprentice’s 18th series.
On Thursday evening, it was revealed the fitness entrepreneur, 28, from Leeds has become the fifth female candidate in a row to win Lord Sugar‘s £250,000 investment after beating pie shop owner Phil Turner, 37.
In the final task, Rachel and Phil went head-to-head to prove to Lord Sugar why they deserved to receive his quarter of a million pound investment and to form a 50/50 partnership with the TV star and business mogul.
With the assistance of aides Baroness Karren Brady and Tim Campbell MBE, Lord Sugar chose Rachel to win the investment, saying: ‘It’s very, very hard for me… My gut feeling is telling me that, Rachel, you’re going to be my business partner.’
After learning of her win, Rachel said: ‘To take part in the process has been incredible and to come out a winner is just something beyond my wildest dreams.’
Thursday evening’s finale saw candidates who were fired earlier in the series return to help the two finalists bring their business plans to life before they took on the biggest pitch of their lives to Lord Sugar and industry experts.
In the final boardroom, Baroness Karren and Tim, issued their thoughts on the finalists’ performance before Lord Sugar made his decision.
About Rachel, Baroness Brady said: ‘This business is her life and her passion for it really comes across. The issue really is just how expensive it is to open gyms, and she’ll burn through your investment pretty quickly.’
Tim added: ‘I think the thing with Rachel is that she’s going into a great industry sector and she’s a great advocate for her product and service…
‘It’s about the scalability of that. Can she systemise what she’s done very well at two gyms over at many, many more?.’
Talking about Phil, Tim said: ‘I think the thing for his business is that you’ve given him clear indications of what is needed to grow this business, will he accept that direction and put into place what you’re thinking he needs to grow?’
Baroness Brady added: ‘He clearly has a good business, and his product is excellent. But he has to embrace new ways of doing things and you’re going to have to be convinced that he’s going to take your advice and make those tough decisions…
‘Because sometimes you have to make tough decisions in business. That’s how you survive.’
After a last impassioned pitch from each finalist for why they should become his partner, Lord Sugar made his decision saying: ‘Let me conclude here…
‘This is a very tough decision, I’ve got to say because I’ve got two very, very credible people in front of me. I’ve got Rachel who claims she’s making money and that she’s going to make even more when she gets the second gym up and running but gyms are, with all due respect, two-a-penny…
‘Specialist pies are not and it’s a market that I’m very interested in but how can I be interested in it if there’s no light at the end of the tunnel…
‘There’s a loss-making business at the moment which you tell me is going to turn around and be okay and that’s my dilemma.’
‘It’s very, very hard for me. I’m having trouble here. But my gut feeling is telling me that, Rachel, you’re going to be my business partner.’
After expressing her delight, a thrilled Rachel said: ‘To take part in the process has been incredible and to come out a winner is just something beyond my wildest dreams. I was twenty-four years old when I started North Studio…
‘I was just a girl from Leeds and now I cannot believe it, I’m going into business with Lord Sugar and he’s investing in me.’
Following her win, Rachel revealed she hopes to achieve including opening a third and fourth space with her gym North Studio and eventually making it down the aisle, after getting engaged to her long-term boyfriend in December last year.
She also aims to recruit Alison Hammond as her first celebrity client after she met the presenter on This Morning a week before she was crowned Apprentice winner.
Rachel successfully convinced Lord Sugar she and her boutique business were a worthy investment despite last year’s winner, boxer Marnie Swindells, also being a gym owner.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, she said: ‘It’s an honour to have been chosen by Lord Sugar and for him to invest in my business which at the end of the day is my baby and something I have been working on for almost five years now.
‘For him to see something in me and think my business is investable is just an incredible and overwhelming feeling.
‘I am really looking forward to working with Lord Sugar for a number of reasons. He is investing a lot of money into me to enable my business to grow to open a third site and potentially a fourth.
‘We don’t have a lot of big celebrities in Leeds and Harrogate but I would love Alison Hammond to come in, she’s hysterical…
‘I met her last week when I went on This Morning and she is so great and funny. I know Lord Sugar cycles too… I would love to get him on a spin bike.’
As the fifth consecutive female winner of the BBC series, Rachel hopes she can inspire a younger generation of women to go into business and not be discouraged by their gender, especially when working in a male dominated environment like the fitness sector.
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