The businesswoman, who was named the joint winner of The Apprentice 2017 alongside James White, opened up on recent reports he suffered a £30,000 loss in the first six months after he joined forces with Lord Sugar, 71. “I think it’s fairly normal,” Sarah Lynn said. “Especially because you’re planning for growth, you’re doing things quite quickly and investing in development and stuff and you often have to do that before you see the rewards. [It] does’t surprise me at all and,” she continued. “If anything, I’m sure he’ll see the benefits long-term of that initial investment.”
The Apprentice star also pointed out how “investment in staff alone in his industry [recruitment] is fairly high”.
She voiced her faith in both James and their investor Lord Sugar, saying: “I’m sure Lord Sugar and James know what they’re doing.”
According to The Sun, James company, Right Time Recruitment, suffered “unfortunate setbacks” in the first half a year following his Apprentice win, which earned him a £250,000 investment from the business mogul.
“Lord Sugar expects high results and only aligns himself with those he believes have the ability to reach his impeccable standards,” a source told the publication.
“Since investing in James, he’s had to deal with several unfortunate setbacks, and now the figures don’t seem to be reflecting the hard work that’s gone into the business.”
A spokesperson for Lord Sugar said: “James and Lord Sugar are in the first six months of trading.
“This time has been used for investing in more staff, renting premises, building a website and rebranding.
“Right Time is in line with forecasts and expectations for the end of June 2019 — and by this stage will be making a profit,” they added.
Express.co.uk has contacted a representative for Lord Sugar and Right Time Recruitment asking for comment.
Meanwhile, Sarah’s company, Sweets In The City, which also received a £250,000 boost from Lord Sugar after she won the BBC series last year, has also been expanding into new territory.
She revealed her confectionary gifts brand has developed their own sweets for the first time, ready to launch the new products next year.
“We’re in the midst corporate gifts and festive things,” she said happily, speaking out on the “Christmas chaos”.
“Harvey Nichols are doing a pop-up cart with us, which is really exciting. So it’s busy but it’s good. It’s what we signed up for.
“We’re restructuring, we’re making lots of changes, we’re developing lots of new products, so it’s always a challenge but it’s one that I thrive on.
“We’ve spent time developing a new range of products which is our own products for the first time ever,” she explained. “In the past, our strategy was we sourced lots of different products from lots of different places and we’d bring them all together and put them into the gifting packages.
“But now we’ve developed our on sweet which is our own flavours, our own branding so it’s something really unique to market.
“I’m really excited about launching it in the spring,” she added.
Sarah said the new vegan sweets will feature fun flavours “which you don’t always see together”.
Elsewhere, James reportedly got into trouble with Lord Sugar when he accepted the investment after setting up a new business with a pal and registering it at his rented home in Birmingham.
The Sun said the action could potentially have seen him lose the investment if it was found he had taken funding Right Time.
James recently told Express.co.uk the brand name he had pitched in The Apprentice final was never going to be the one he used.
“The name that you saw on the show was more of a concept for the show,” he said. “But we’re going to stick with what we’ve got already.”
The Apprentice continues tonight at 9pm on BBC One.