Apprentice finalist scoops £20m payday after buying Lord Sugar out

A former finalist on BBC One’s TV show The Apprentice secured a bumper pay day this week, 14 years after she took part in the show.  

Susie Ma, 36, who took part in the 2011 series of The Apprentice, has taken back full control of her business, Tropic Skincare, after buying out Lord Alan Sugar in 2023.

Companies House accounts show Ma paid herself a dividend of £18.2million for 2024, while a further dividend of £2million was approved at the end of April this year. 

The multi-million-pound pay-outs were up from the dividend of £11million approved in 2023.

As part of the deal, Lord Sugar will also receive a multi-million pound pay-out, providing a significant return on his initial £200,000 investment. Ma is understood to be paying Lord Sugar in stages. 

Billionaire Lord Sugar previously held a 50 per cent stake in the skincare and cosmetics business, but resigned as a director of the firm in April 2023. 

Investment: Susie Ma secured £200,000 from Lord Alan Sugar after featuring in The Apprentice

Tropic Skincare’s pre-tax profit rose by more than 30 per cent to £8.7million last year, while its sales jumped to £68million, up from £62.3million the previous year. 

The average number of people employed by the business fell from 316 to 286 in 2024. 

In 2024, the company made charitable donations of £615,000, up from £444,674 the previous year. 

A statement signed off by the board in the company’s annual results, said: ‘The company performed very well during the year… despite the challenges of the aftereffects of the pandemic’.

It added: ‘A cost saving review was carried out on some of the direct costs and gross margins saw improvements from this.

‘The company continues to invest in its people, its products, its software and its manufacturing equipment.’

Tropic Skincare also said: ‘During the year… the board prioritise cost reduction initiatives and efficiency improvements across the business.’

Tropic Skincare products are sold online and via approximately 20,000 part-time ‘ambassadors’, who get a website, earn commission on sales and get ongoing support. Commision on sales ranges from 25 per cent to 35 per cent, according to the company’s website. 

The firm’s ambassadors buy a starter kit of products for £198 and there are no ongoing fees. 

Ma, who studied economics at UCL, founded Tropic Skincare in 2004 when she was 15 and started selling body scrubs in London’s Greenwich market. 

Despite coming third in The Apprentice in 2011, Lord Sugar saw the entrepreneur’s potential and handed her a £200,000 investment to help Tropic Skincare scale-up. 

Ma is now believed to be worth around £73million.  

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