Tom Pellereau celebrates as Lord Sugar picks him as winner of The Apprentice 2011
Last updated 7/18/2011 12:17:54 PM
Tom Pellereau celebrates as Lord Sugar picks him as winner of The Apprentice
Some times nice guys do win. So congratulations indeed to inventor Tom Pellereau who's been been named the winner of the seventh series of The Apprentice.
Tom wasn't the runaway favourite - he was the worst-performing winner of The Apprentice after ending up on the losing team for eight of the weekly tasks.
But, importantly, this was a series with a difference - Lord Sugar was looking for someone with a 'big idea', a business plan into which he would invest £250,000. And above all, Tom is an ideas man.
The 32-year-old entrepreneur's design of office chairs to prevent back pain secure him the investment in the tense final minutes of the show. Lord Sugar said he had gone with his "gut feeling" when he picked Tom and the winner was clearly over the moon with his success, promising "a huge number of ideas" which he and his new investor would sift through before devising a business plan.
"I'm very much going to listen to him," Tom said. "There will definitely be some exciting products coming shortly. I think this result shows that nice guys come first."
Tom has previously scored some success with a curved nail file, which is now sold in the UK and the US and Lord Sugar explained: "I am a product man in my heart. I've made products and sold them to retailers, that's in my blood and that's what Tom is all about."
Each of the four finalists came up with a business plan. Jim 'Jedi' Eastwood came up with an e-learning service for schools that relied a little too much on Lord Sugar's name as a brand - he might have been better starting a hypnosis business, such is his legendary way of steering people to see things his way. Viewer favourite and top tip for future success, Susan Ma wanted to expand her organic skincare (presumably by questioning whether the French like their skin - she asks those kind of questions). And Helen Milligan's aim was to launch a national concierge service... or a bakery business... or something. She wasn't quite sure.. so long as she won - she didn't.