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do people really pay £3 for a bog standard brownie? |
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#101 |
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Join Date: Aug 2011
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[/b] Well if that is the case why do you single out Alana and,in addition, how do you know that her chocolate is "very low quality " ?
It isn't hard to find good quality Chocolate, I always buy bars of Chocolate in France when I am there because the quality is so much better and even the milk chocolate has a higher cocoa content. Belgian Chocolate also has a high cocoa content. |
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#102 |
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Join Date: Jun 2014
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The people at her presentation who are in the food industry did not find them to be low quality. The Brownies are " "ridiculously rich" , which is a mark of quality and there is no reason to knock down Alana's business plan, until she has put it into action.
It isn't hard to find good quality Chocolate, I always buy bars of Chocolate in France when I am there because the quality is so much better and even the milk chocolate has a higher cocoa content. Belgian Chocolate also has a high cocoa content. |
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#103 |
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: London
Posts: 60
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just checked her website, her cakes are so expensive, its quite ridiculous
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#104 |
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Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 251
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I would buy them
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#105 |
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Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 2,546
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I would buy them
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#106 |
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Join Date: May 2012
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just checked her website, her cakes are so expensive, its quite ridiculous
I do not think she has costed her slices accurately. The 19p per slice was probably for ingredients only and did not include labour (her own admittedly but still needs to be factored in), packaging, kitchen, electricity etc etc. I know she is making in batches, but I would find it difficult to make a tray bake at that price using quality ingredients. Not saying it cannot be done, but she must be cutting corners somewhere and it's probably with the ingredients. |
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#107 |
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Join Date: Jan 2016
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The people at her presentation who are in the food industry did not find them to be low quality. The Brownies are " "ridiculously rich" , which is a mark of quality and there is no reason to knock down Alana's business plan, until she has put it into action.
It isn't hard to find good quality Chocolate, I always buy bars of Chocolate in France when I am there because the quality is so much better and even the milk chocolate has a higher cocoa content. Belgian Chocolate also has a high cocoa content. The ingredients give it away that itrs cheap peanut butter with palm oil and her "finest" chocolate is 22% cocoa that she uses, aka it's mostly sugar. She is smart though knowing that the only way the business might work is by using her name to flog it. |
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#108 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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I agree, I would buy a fancy cake for a special treat but I would never pay £3 for a tray bake slice. Even at our best baker in town who makes ridiculously yummy quality cakes, a slice of tray bake would cost £1.75 and the ingredients are top class!
I do not think she has costed her slices accurately. The 19p per slice was probably for ingredients only and did not include labour (her own admittedly but still needs to be factored in), packaging, kitchen, electricity etc etc. I know she is making in batches, but I would find it difficult to make a tray bake at that price using quality ingredients. Not saying it cannot be done, but she must be cutting corners somewhere and it's probably with the ingredients. If it was completely unrealistic, and clearly did not include the other overheads, then this could be considered very suspect., So either Alana was using cheaper ingredients at first, or she was using expensive Ingredients and only quoted ingredients costs instead of including all the outgoings. If she currently has the benefit of extremely low overheads as she is using her parents' premises, then that benefit will vanish when she has to move to proper" premises and pay "going rates" The thing is that if you use very expensive ingredients - and can find customers happy to pay the kind of prices that brings - then there is money to be made. |
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#109 |
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Join Date: Apr 2009
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What could be considered "unfair" was that Alana was trumpeting this "massive margin" in the interviews and the final selection boardroom, using it as a stick with which to beat Courtney's proposal.
If it was completely unrealistic, and clearly did not include the other overheads, then this could be considered very suspect., So either Alana was using cheaper ingredients at first, or she was using expensive Ingredients and only quoted ingredients costs instead of including all the outgoings. If she currently has the benefit of extremely low overheads as she is using her parents' premises, then that benefit will vanish when she has to move to proper" premises and pay "going rates" The thing is that if you use very expensive ingredients - and can find customers happy to pay the kind of prices that brings - then there is money to be made. I'm not sure exactly how much time has passed between filming ended and LS made his decision last week, but presumably in that time he has experts go through both business plans and flag up all the issues and then looks at how each could work with his investment and probably a lot of tweaking and change. I doubt he chooses the winner without being sure there is a way to make the business work. |
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#110 |
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Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 2,546
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just checked her website, her cakes are so expensive, its quite ridiculous
The price of most goods are the same so why single out Alana ? Recently I was in Norway and visited a glacier which, it is said, six million years old. There was a shop there selling small bottles of the water for £3.50p ! and justifed it because the water was drawn from the glacier and therefore millions of years old. But on each bottle it said " Best Before November 2016 "
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#111 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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Quote:
[/b] The price of most goods are the same so why single out Alana ?
Recently I was in Norway and visited a glacier which, it is said, six million years old. There was a shop there selling small bottles of the water for £3.50p ! and justifed it because the water was drawn from the glacier and therefore millions of years old. But on each bottle it said " Best Before November 2016 " ![]() The answer came back: "This salt has been in the ground for 3 million years, how long would you like ??" |
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#112 |
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 667
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What could be considered "unfair" was that Alana was trumpeting this "massive margin" in the interviews and the final selection boardroom, using it as a stick with which to beat Courtney's proposal.
If it was completely unrealistic, and clearly did not include the other overheads, then this could be considered very suspect., So either Alana was using cheaper ingredients at first, or she was using expensive Ingredients and only quoted ingredients costs instead of including all the outgoings. If she currently has the benefit of extremely low overheads as she is using her parents' premises, then that benefit will vanish when she has to move to proper" premises and pay "going rates" The thing is that if you use very expensive ingredients - and can find customers happy to pay the kind of prices that brings - then there is money to be made. |
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#113 |
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 667
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Quote:
[/b] The price of most goods are the same so why single out Alana ?
Recently I was in Norway and visited a glacier which, it is said, six million years old. There was a shop there selling small bottles of the water for £3.50p ! and justifed it because the water was drawn from the glacier and therefore millions of years old. But on each bottle it said " Best Before November 2016 " ![]() You pay a premium for a unique product in a tourist location. Allana has neither if she's trying to get cafes across the country to sell her budget ingredient brownies. |
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#114 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 900
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I don't think she's being deliberately deceitful, she just seems very niave having being gifted free work premises. I doubt she has any clue as the the cost of electricity, training, recruiting, Ni employer contributions, holiday pay, pension contributions and so on.
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#115 |
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Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Yorkshire
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There's plenty of people trying to rip off consumers with overpriced low quality stuff, but this is the apprentice forum.
You pay a premium for a unique product in a tourist location. Allana has neither if she's trying to get cafes across the country to sell her budget ingredient brownies. But never mind. |
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#116 |
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Join Date: Jan 2016
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My post was about irony - water six million years old - and then had a "Best Before " date on it.
But never mind. Bad example I thought, water goes off / stale much quicker than most fruit and veg once its bubbled to the surface. We had a spring where I grew up and the water took thousands of years to filter to the surface. Once it was harvested it wouldn't be any good after a day. |
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#117 |
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Join Date: Jan 2016
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It is not even clear she accounted for her own labour. The obvious suspicion is that her claimed £40,000 profit (which we know was not reinvested in the business) was mainly her own (and maybe her boyfriend's) salary -- whether she took it as salary or dividends for tax reasons.
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#118 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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exactly. If that's two people full time without paying for A kitchen or other expenses then 20k gross income for traveling all over the place isn't very much.
Peter Jones, Sarah Willingham or Deborah Meaden would have sniffed out the bogus profits in a heartbeat during the questioning. Mind you faced with the Dragons, Courtney would probably just wet himself and run away. So neither finalist would have gotten investment from the "other" show |
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#119 |
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Join Date: Nov 2011
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Just shows what the standard of interviewing and "due diligence" is on The Apprentice, compared to Dragon's Den.
Peter Jones, Sarah Willingham or Deborah Meaden would have sniffed out the bogus profits in a heartbeat during the questioning. Mind you faced with the Dragons, Courtney would probably just wet himself and run away. So neither finalist would have gotten investment from the "other" show |
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#120 |
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Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Yorkshire
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Your post was also about not having a go at allana as load L's of people sell expensive stuff.
Bad example I thought, water goes off / stale much quicker than most fruit and veg once its bubbled to the surface. We had a spring where I grew up and the water took thousands of years to filter to the surface. Once it was harvested it wouldn't be any good after a day. I am not in a postion to argue your superior knowledge of water given that had a convenient spring close to where you grew up because the only water that bubbled close to me ( on our drive in fact ) was straightforward tap water because there was a leak ![]() But notwithstanding that you also said in your post :- "There's plenty of people trying to rip off consumers with overpriced low quality stuff, but this is the apprentice forum." So given that the inference is that Alana is using low quality products - as you and others have said on this apprentice forum - why is my post not relevant ? |
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#121 |
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 667
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Just shows what the standard of interviewing and "due diligence" is on The Apprentice, compared to Dragon's Den.
Peter Jones, Sarah Willingham or Deborah Meaden would have sniffed out the bogus profits in a heartbeat during the questioning. Mind you faced with the Dragons, Courtney would probably just wet himself and run away. So neither finalist would have gotten investment from the "other" show Although dragons den is pretty weak now I've discovered shark tank. Millionaires are made almost weekly there! |
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#122 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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I guess its not really an investment, sugars PR boost, wages from the show, the extra exposure for houses he owns means he can pretty much write off the 250k. He just wants good PR from the investment and Alana's factory in wales gives that. He can go along and get his photo when the new factory opens.
Although dragons den is pretty weak now I've discovered shark tank. Millionaires are made almost weekly there! It will be a licensed product made by another manufacturer. |
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#123 |
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Join Date: Jan 2016
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Alana was talking of "outsourcing" - she won't have a factory of her own.
It will be a licensed product made by another manufacturer. Seems a bit silly the "I've put my name on it" if shes outsourcing. |
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#124 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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Really? I missed that on the show.
Seems a bit silly the "I've put my name on it" if shes outsourcing. Using an existing factory is her only option. |
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#125 |
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Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 2,546
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£250K would get you bog all equipment wise.
Using an existing factory is her only option. |
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