Lord Sugar has invested in 'The Apprentice' finalist Scarlett Allen-Horton's recruitment business.
Lord Sugar
Although the entrepreneur lost out to Carina Lepore in the final of the BBC reality show last December, she has now secured the backing of the 73-year-old businessman as a partner for her Harper Fox Partners firm.
Lord Sugar said: "I was very impressed with Scarlett throughout 'The Apprentice' process, and we stayed in touch afterwards.
"Prior to coming on 'The Apprentice', Scarlett held a highly successful career within the corporate world of executive recruitment, however, spotted a key gap in the market for a true quality-led search firm, operating within the manufacturing and energy sectors, focusing on green technologies with a passion for attracting senior female, diverse and inclusive talent solutions.
"I already own three recruitment businesses, so understand this industry well.
"I liked Scarlett's approach and her recruitment industry offer, so it made sense to me to see if Scarlett would be interested in working with me, and I'm very happy she was."
The company offers "senior leadership talent and diverse executive recruitment solutions for the UK and international engineering and manufacturing industries".
Commenting on the exciting opportunity to work with Lord Sugar, Scarlett added: "I am absolutely thrilled about the partnership with Lord Sugar and really excited about what Harper Fox Partners can achieve given Lord Sugar's expertise of successfully building recruitment businesses."
The addition of Harper Fox Partners means Lord Sugar now has four recruitment businesses within the Amshold group of companies.
Hyper Recruitment Solutions (HRS) and Right Time Recruitment were founded by former 'Apprentice' winners, with 2012 champion Ricky Martin and 2017's James White in charge respectively.
Lord Sugar has also invested in Hernshead Recruitment, which was founded last year by recruiter Tom Johnson.
He recently suggested two seasons of 'The Apprentice' could air in 2021 after this year's series was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The entrepreneur said: "That's one of the things we're considering, to have two series air in one year. It will be a big challenge to do but it's possible.
"The production company already has a group of candidates that were ready to be in this next series and those candidates have been told to standby and see what happens."