The Apprentice winner makes first profit after Lord Alan Sugar backing
A winner of hit BBC show The Apprentice has seen her company enter the black for the first time after Lord Alan Sugar signed up as an investor.
Rachel Woolford emerged victorious in 2024’s series after triumphing over pie company chief Phil Turner in the final.
As a result, Woolford secured a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar – who formally invested in her gym company R Nation in June last year.
In return for the injection of funds, Lord Sugar’s Amsvest Limited took a stake of up to 50 per cent in R Nation.
Lord Sugar also joined the business, which was set up in 2019 and based in Loughton, as a director.
Now, new accounts filed with Companies House have revealed a surge in assets during its latest financial year has seen R Nation report its first positive valuation in the firm’s history.
According to the results, R Nation boasted almost £60,000 in net assets for the year to 31 March, 2025.
The total was up from -£180,236 in the prior 12 months and is the first profit of any kind the business has ever made.
An increase in assets from £245,626 to £402,931 helped boost the company in the year, the accounts show, while its net current liabilities were slashed from almost £80,000 to just over £7,000.
Despite the increase in assets, the company’s creditors still totalled £336,033 for the year, down slightly from £345,951.
Lord Sugar exits investment
The results for R Nation come after Lord Sugar sold his entire stake in an engineering and technology recruitment agency earlier this year.
Hernshead Group was set up by Tom Johnson in 2019 who shortly afterwards persuaded Lord Sugar to invest despite him not going on The Apprentice.
Lord Sugar had backed the firm for more than four years but Johnson has now taken full control of the Reading-base company and is planning to expand across Europe and North America.
Also in March, CityAM reported that a group controlled by Lord Sugar had posted a record profit despite falling sales.
Amshold Trading reported a pre-tax profit of £10.8m for the 12 months to 30 September, 2024, up from the £8.4m it achieved in the prior period.
However, accounts filed with Companies House also showed its turnover declined from £28.4m to £27.1m.
Amshold has a variety of subsidiaries, such as Amscreen, which produces digital signage, and Amsprop, the unit through which Sugar holds his property investments.
In November last year, Lord Sugar’s property empire returned to the black during its latest financial year after recovering from a huge loss.