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The Apprentice: Courtney Wood
THE 'AWESOME' Just before Christmas, novelty gift designer Courtney Wood, founder of Bubblegum Stuff, was crowned runnerup on The Apprentice, having seen off the mouthy, the shouty, the emotional and the frankly inept. Despite the posturing egos of many of the candidates, Courtney's cool, unflappable approach to tasks impressed Lord Sugar's sidekicks Claude Littner and Karren Brady, with Courtney delighted to find himself on the winning team in eight out of 10 tasks. So what makes Courtney, a member of The Giftware Association, tick, and what's in the pipeline for his company, Bubblegum Stuff, during the coming year? As the last man standing on the 2016 series of The Apprentice, entrepreneur Courtney Wood was a bit of a dark horse in the competition. Non-aggressive and pushy like many of the other candidates, his was a case of 100% self belief, frequently describing himself as "awesome". Showing his supreme confidence from the very start of the series, he boasted, "this'll be easy to win!", and he was almost right, as he came within a hair's breadth of being crowned Lord Sugar's 'apprentice',
with the prize - a ÂŁ250,000 investment in his gift company Bubblegum Stuff - so nearly in his grasp. In the final episode in week 12, Courtney pointed out: "You don't get many opportunities to shine and I feel I have the opportunity to shine now and show what I'm made of." He put up a very credible performance, creating a new brand, Purple Whale, which had the tagline 'little gifts, big impressions', something he believes
Left: Apprentice runner-up Courtney Wood. Below: Courtney in the boardroom with fellow team Nebula candidates, from left to right: Grainne McCoy, Jessica Cunningham, Frances Bishop and Alana Spencer. Bottom: Lord Sugar with The Apprentice 2016 candidates.
describes the gifts that are designed and manufactured at Bubblegum. To prove the point, with some help from his fellow candidates, he created a prototype trophy baby sip beaker in just 24 hours. "It's been designed so that babies can take a sip of success," he told The Apprentice panel of 250, which included Henri Davis, chairman of The Giftware Association, in her role as head of buying and merchandising at Scribbler. She was a familiar face among an inner circle of 20 industry specialists that also included Paula Nickolds, then commercial director at John Lewis and now managing director. "I think his ideas are fantastic, his products are great, but he does need a guiding hand," Paula suggested to Lord Sugar. It wasn't to be of course - Courtney was pipped to the post by impressive businesswoman and cake marker
Alana Spencer, but Courtney has since shown that he is as determined to be ever more entrepreneurial. Passionate about the creative design business he set up in the summer of 2012, Courtney, now 30, who graduated from Brunel University with a first class honours degree in industrial design, initially gained his experience in the gift industry as an apprentice at a London based novelty gift company, Spinning Hat. He then took a year out in Australia, and started Bubblegum Stuff in 2012, aged 25, with ÂŁ20,000 of his own money. He Progressive Gifts & Home Worldwide
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