The Apprentice winner started out in her parents’ convenience store

Harpreet Kaur, who beat 16 rival candidates to win £250,000 investment in the popular reality television show ‘The Apprentice’, had her first taste of work when she helped her parents behind the counter of their convenience store.

Her working-class family owns Waring Green Stores, on Garden Road in Brighouse, where Kaur helped out while juggling work and studies before eventually setting up her first dessert shop in partnership with her sister Gurvinder.

Her parents, Jas and Pete, have run Waring Green Stores, since moving to the area in 2002.

Kaur, 30, went head-to-head with other budding entrepreneurs, for the 16th edition of the BBC show helmed by business tycoon Lord Alan Sugar.

In the end, Kaur was able to convince the business leader to back her idea to scale up her Oh So Yum! range of dessert parlours.

“I’m really overwhelmed,” said Kaur, as she was pronounced the winner of the pre-recorded show over the weekend.

“Lost for words that I’ve won the BBC Apprentice. But I’m so excited for this new chapter with Oh So Yum! Thank you to everyone who showed their support,” she said.

Introducing @Lord_Sugar’s latest business partner….ME!🎉

Lost for words that I’ve won the @bbcapprentice but I’m so excited for this new chapter with Oh So Yum🙌🏼

Thank you to everyone who showed their support! Celebrate with me by ordering using the link in my bio💜 pic.twitter.com/y25pyvQfKy

— Harpreet Kaur (@harpsikaur) March 24, 2022

Describing herself as a “born leader, fearless and funny”, Kaur entered the show to expand her already successful coffee and cakes business in West Yorkshire, with the aim of becoming a leading brand in the UK.

“I’m definitely not in business to make friends. I’m here to make money, and I’m pretty sure Lord Sugar isn’t looking for a new mate,” she declared, at the start of the show earlier this year.

“I love turning my dreams into goals, and then achieving them. But life is also about enjoying the small moments and pleasures, such as really good dessert of course,” said Kaur, a British Punjabi, who grew up in Birmingham.

She applied for ‘The Apprentice’ convinced that the business was ready to be scaled up with the right amount of investment.

Over the course of 12 tough tasks broadcast weekly, 16 candidates were whittled down with the words “you’re fired” by Sugar until the final four remained to fight it out for his £250,000 investment.

This year marked the first time that ‘The Apprentice’ had an all-female final, eventually won by Kaur as Sugar’s newest business partner.