Apprentice appearance for ABC

London-based ABC Imaging appeared on BBC One’s flagship reality show The Apprentice last night (10 Nov).

The company, based in Farringdon, took part in the Discount Buying task, in week six of the show hosted by Lord Alan Sugar.

The regular negotiation task involves teams having to source a number of arbitrary items over the course of a day and negotiate the best price on them, but this year it took place through the night.

One of the items was a printed poster of an image of a London landmark. The Apprentice's Team Titan approached ABC at around 5.15am with an image of London Bridge to be printed. ABC sales executive Adam Cann led the negotiations for an A1 poster that would usually cost £11. After protracted negotiations, Cann settled on £7.50.

 

The poster was printed in five minutes on ABC's Océ Colourwave. Cann said he offered Titan ABC’s Arizona flatbed to print it on but Titan wanted the fastest printer.

Cann said: “The BBC contacted us a few months prior and said, ‘We are looking for 24 hour printers, can you make sure you have people actively available on site to negotiate price.’ I was here from 6pm to 7am and had some other bits and pieces to do.

“They were in the print shop for about 15 minutes but obviously the camera made it look like a lot less. The printers for the other team took about an hour. 

“It’s quite cool, something a bit different from what you’re used to. It was nice to see a microphone bobbing about at 6am and then they just stormed the place with cameras.”

Cann, who said his work WhatsApp group wouldn’t stop buzzing after his appearance, was at home “anxiously” watching the episode with his girlfriend.

Other than operating as a sales executive, he is also an education sector specialist for ABC’s Student Print Club, which ABC says is the only online service that provides door-to-door print services to students.

At Drupa, ABC invested heavily in four new Canon digital toner production presses.