http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...p-9939891.html

Wouldn't say without his help as such, she's had hours of free advertising.

Very much agreed. I also wonder if it's not an established player in the field behind the brand, with Bianca being a figure (fore-)head.

LOL more like it, I pointed out last week her project would take a dam sight more than 250k to be successful and that was pointed out several times last night in different ways.

She could run the business as a "While You Wait" experience. Get the colour cards out, run out the back, mix the dye, dye plain tights and dry them. All done whilst the client is having a fancy coffee and bun. Once the customer is on the database, they can order new tights online.

Only because she was trying to do too much too soon. Really, the business had an elephant in its room, which was that it was aimed at BME women. In an attempt not to say that, she was offering far too many shades - 30 to start with!

I know nothing about hosiery manufacturing, but if she can find a mill willing to do a short run, no reason why she should not launch five or six shades. Forget matte and gloss for now, do one-size tights, and the problem of having to provide 720 combinations has gone; you end up with a perfectly ordinary cottage industry that might just do well. There was certainly speculative interest in the fashion experts, so she might get some specialist coverage.

If she got an American backer she'd be laughing. Much better BME market than the UK. I'd love to see her succeed in a very big way!

I'm glad she's going to stick with this idea, if she decides to sell to the mass market (thus cheaper priced) I may consider buying a pair.

I'd bet my last hot tub Sugar's involved in this one too.

I think the business definitely has legs but a) not at £25 a pop and b) due to the number of permutations not though a physical retail environment.

There wasn't (or at least I didn't hear) any mention of the online potential for this business, and whilst I'm no expert in tights manufacturing it appears that there is straight forward dyeing technology in place, so an online version of this business only needs to carry the un-stained stock in the various sizes, which are then dyed to order and posted out.

Discounts could be offered for automatic repeat ordering seeing how quickly tights can be got through.... etc. etc.

As mentioned above, I would think that someone from the industry will be involved. And hence pricing and product design will be in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. Making tights is a well understood industry, and what will be valuable here is the publicity from The Apprentice show itself.

I notice the name change and I don't like it.

I really like her idea and I hope she can make it big.

This will be interesting to watch.


Luisa, who has Claude singing her praises on twitter at the moment, and he's no fool, thinks it will need nearer a million than 250k. Which may illustrate the difference between a realworld investment if someone is backing it, and the Sugar criteria. She's going to have to sll lot of tights at 7- 99 to make the "mega bucks" his lordship wanted for his 250k, But she only has to sell 20k at say a £2 profit each annually to match the return you would get from inesting it in a bank/or bonds for 3 years. The question is if ,somewhere in between, there's a return thats worth her and an investor's effort .