Sir Alan met the candidates in Hamleys to give them details of their next task, but not before rejigging the teams and appointing project managers himself.

Paul and Tre moved to Stealth, to be led by Ghazal. Nathalie and Sophie are moved to Eclipse, to be led by Adam.

Ghazal had up this point been quite anonymous and looked less than pleased to be made the project manager with a team including big characters like Tre and Jadine, although she unconvincingly said to camera that she wasn't intimidated by anything. Anything except a sales pitch to Pets@Home, is what she obviously meant.

The task was to design and make a confectionary product, and then sell it at London Zoo. In Eclipse, Adam immediately laid down the law by telling them they were going with an animal theme because it was obvious. There were a few raised eyebrows from Katie - a serial underminer - but honestly, it seemed like a logical theme.

Eclipse's production seemed to go well with over 500 lollies made - some chocolate, some orange flavoured. Things were more problematic for Stealth where they struggled to get a production line going, wasted time in making their chocolate and forgot to get sticks which meant sending Tre and Kristina on a hunt to find them. Tre's negotiating tactic of suggesting that the wholesaler sell the sticks on a "less VAT basis" didn't get very far, unsuprisingly. Stealth finished production with 100 bags of fudge and 110 lollies - less than the 300 they had planned for.

Eclipse got to the Zoo to find out a bouncy castle was going up in their planned selling lcoation. Adam picked a new location that was remarkable out of the way and said it was "a covenient place not in the walkway". It may have been convenient if you wanted to sleep for the day but if you're intention was to sell stuff, a location closer to a walkway may have been better still. A fact that was not lost on Simon, who pushed for a relocation.

Some market research from the Zoo reported back To Eclipse that a natural or organic sweet would be popular, but this was ruled out for cost reasons, but that didn't stop Natalie overruling the project manager and labelling their orange lolly as "Natural Orange" rather than "Tiger Orange" as he had ordered. A blunder which meant that every one of them had to have the word "natural" crossed out. Lohit tried selling one with the catchy pitch "it's not a natural product", which horrified one mother. Lohit came back strong from that blip though to be a model salesman and was probably the star of the show. His technique was held up as an example to the others by Adam.

Adam's a salesman by trade, but instead of selling, he stayed in a lion suit for hours that scared children and also allowed him to "observe" the team.

Stealth sold out of their products in the afternoon, whilst Eclipse engaged in frantic afternoon price cuts followed eventually by giving them away. They later met up in the boardroom to hear the results. Eclipse made £983.80 and Stealth made £994, meaning Ghazal's team had won by about £10. I was especially impressed with Ghazal's team because we were told they made 100 bags of fudge - selling at £3 each - and 110 lollies - selling at £2.50. They sold out so you might imagine they made a total £575 but actually they raised £994. For her next trick, Ghazal will be walking across water and feeding the five thousand.

Sir Alan was less than impressed with the "not natural" Orange lolly, calling it "child vomit in araldite" and "sick on a stick". Adam kept Sophie backin the the boardroom with him, and also Natalie who seemingly tried to lie her way out of the labelling farce much to Sir Alan's displeasure. Sir Alan was also not pleased with Adam for not selling enough and spending too long in a lion suit, and was taken aback when Sophie revealed a morale stance about selling over priced lollies to harrassed mums.

Sir Alan carried on his teasing tactics from last week. Previously, the words "for that reason.." were a sure sign that someone was about to get fired. This year it's "for that reason.... you've got a lot to learn" before moving on to someone else. He decided that Sophie's morals were too naive and she should stick to science, so it was the quantum physicist that got the cab ride home.

Labels: apprentice, review, tv