Milton Keynes salon-owner makes Apprentice final after impressing Lord Sugar with business experience

Milton Salon-owner Rochelle Anthony has made The Apprentice final after impressing Lord Sugar with her business experience’.

In last night’s show, the 35-year-old – who owns The Dollshouse Salon in Central Milton Keynes - was among five candidates grilled by Alan Sugar’s hard-nosed advisors which resulted in a triple firing.

Fortunately, Rochelle’s business plan to open up more salons was enough to impress and the mum-of-two is now just one step away from bagging the £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar.

Following her success, the salon-owner said she felt ‘privileged and proud’ to be a finalist and that it had been a ‘rollercoaster of a journey’.

Competing against Rochelle in the final will be court advocate and award-winning boxer Marnie Swindells who plans to open up a boxing gym in London with Lord Sugar’s investment.

Semi-finalists Victoria Goulbourne, who wanted to open up kiosks to expand her online sweet-selling business, Megan Hornby whose cocktail-cum-dessert bar dream didn’t wash and Dani Donovan who proposed to sell hair extensions, were all fired from the boardroom.

Rochelle will go head-to-head with Marnie in the final episode next week when they will pull together a launch campaign for their respective businesses.

Previously fired candidates will join them for the final task of the season.

In the run-up to the final memorable blunders have included moisturising cream which resulted in green stains, depriving desert tourists of water and unappetising dog food.

However, Lord Sugar’s aide Tim Campbell called Rochelle and Marnie ‘deserving finalists’ while Baroness Karen Brady described them as ‘strong leaders’.

Finalist Rochelle previously told the Citizen: “It’s been a truly amazing experience, I’m a huge fan of the show, and have watched it for years. I’ve always wanted to be a candidate, and after the hardest time during the pandemic, I knew how much I could learn from the process, and how amazing it would be to represent my home town of Milton Keynes.

“I would love to expand my business worldwide, do more in education and work on a hot tools range perfect for all hair types.”

The final episode airs next week on Thursday March 23 at 9pm on BBC1.