The winner of BBC One’s entrepreneurial show The Apprentice has revealed she bought out Lord Alan Sugar’s share of her company to go it alone.
Alana Spencer, from Aberystwyth, won the show's twelfth series in 2016, with Lord Sugar investing £250,000 into her luxury cake and chocolate business, Ridiculously Rich.
The Welsh baker bought out the business mogul shortly before the pandemic hit - and was forced to adapt quickly to the Covid restrictions, WalesOnline reports.
Alana opened the business’ first café in Aberystwyth, on the first day of the Welsh firebreak lockdown, and told 2Chill of her ‘crazy’ year.
She said: “We’ve had to pivot the business massively. Cafes were not really part of our plan.
“We were focused on selling cakes at festivals and shows but obviously they were all cancelled.
“It’s been tough because we’ve had to keep readapting but we have grown.”
Now, Alana has opened a further three cafes in Llandudno, Caernarfon and Cardiff Bay.
Despite previously asking her customers for ideas of where to open up next , Alana has decided to focus on the four Ridiculously Rich stores open now.
“I’d love to go all guns blazing and open stores everywhere.
“But at the moment we are taking a bit of a pause because we are so seasonal.
“We need to see out a year in all four of our stores so we know what works and what doesn’t work to get a more solid vision.”
The locations of her four stores were carefully picked as beauty spots Brits are heading to while it is difficult to go abroad.
Alana made the point that the habit of a daily walk is something which has outlived lockdown.
Her store in Aberystwyth, at the end of the promenade and in Caernarfon, which is in a popular walking spot in Craig-y-Dod are her most successful.
She puts this success down to people just wanting a cake and a coffee at the end of a walk.
The coffee at Ridiculously Rich is specially made by Ammanford based Coaltown Coffee Roasters.
Alana said: “We do specials all the time but I think the fact that we do such amazing coffee and cake is what we’re known for so they’re definitely our bestsellers.”
As for the future, Alana has plans to revert Ridiculously Rich to its roots and take the business to food festivals, all while continuing the four cafes in Wales.
Ridiculously Rich has just booked onto the Manchester Christmas food market which will run out of the Piccadilly Gardens from November 12.
Alana said: “We put stuff on the back burner during Covid but it's all bubbling back up now.
“I’m very hopeful the next year will be a year people get back out and start going to these events again.
“We do events so well in this country so I’m excited to see them come back to life again.”
