APPRENTICE’S23 BIGGEST LOSER Winning plumber goes down pan owing £2m
APPRENTICE winner Joseph Valente has become its biggest loser after the firm he set up with Alan Sugar’s help went bust owing almost £2million.
One creditor claimed it commissioned work even though he thinks Valente must have known his plumbing outfit Impragas was struggling.
Nathan Oselton, of One Word Graphics, owed £2,500, said: “I feel pretty angry and mad about the way the company has behaved. It has always been a bit of a struggle getting paid.
“My accountant has looked at the paperwork from the liquidators and it does not look like he was making money for quite a while.”
Another boss, who is owed tens of thousands of pounds, said: “I don’t think you could print what I actually want to say about him.”
Valente won BBC’S The Apprentice in 2015 and got £250,000 investment backing from Lord Sugar to set up Impragas.
At the time he said: “I’m the definition of success I’m the godfather of business and I’m here to make Lord Sugar a lot of money.”
Two years later they parted company, with Valente taking control. Just before lockdown in March, the firm went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation, with Valente blaming Brexit and last year’s warm winter.
In all, 34 firms are owed £1.95million. The largest creditor is Woodhouse Sturnham, which is short of £819,000, followed by another plumbing merchant, Wolsley, which is owed £280,000.
HMRC is owed more than £400,000 for VAT and PAYE debts. Google is £166,000 out of pocket for advertising costs.
Valente, 31, from Peterborough, said: “We had to shut down part of the organisation and it meant that some creditors were not paid.
“Our main priority was that staff kept their jobs and our customers were looked after. The intellectual property of the company was sold to another company and the old company was put into liquidation. The majority of creditors continue to trade with the new company.
“At every moment we were trading to keep the company alive.
“We were never ever trading or taking materials knowing the company was going to be sold or part of the company be liquidated. Everything we did was in the best interests of the business, its creditors and staff.”
Accounts show Impragas has made losses of over £100,000 a year since 2016. Valente negotiated for the brand to continue with staff employed by a new owner who took on the customer base, but not the creditors.
He has a new business teaching construction bosses how to scale up their operations.