Susie Ma, 36, was a finalist on the 2011 series of the TV show where she got a £200,000 investment from Alan Sugar to help her business Tropic Skincare scale-up after she stared at Greenwich market
A former contestant on The Apprentice has enjoyed a massive pay day 14 years after she took part in the show.
Susie Ma, 36, was a finalist on the 2011 series of the BBC One TV show. She has taken back complete control of her company, Tropic Skincare, after she bought out her business partner, Lord Alan Sugar in 2023.
Ma paid herself a dividend of £18.2million for 2024, records from Companies House show, while a further dividend of £2million was approved at the end of April this year.
The massive payouts were an increase on the £11million that was approved in 2023. But Ma isn’t the only one making money, Lord Sugar is also expected to receive a multi-million pound pay-out, as part of their deal, it is understood Ma is paying him off in stages.
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. Profits at Tropic Skincare were up more than 30 per cent last year, at £8.7million before tax. The sales have jumped to £68million, up from £62.3million the previous year.
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The average number of employees at Tropic fell a little, from 316 to 286 in 2024.The company made charitable donations of £615,000 in 2024, 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.’
The company’s business model sees the focus on online sales and sales made via approximately 20,000 part-time ‘ambassadors’, who get a website, earn commission on sales and get ongoing support.
Ma, who studied economics at UCL, founded Tropic Skincare in 2004 when she was 15 selling body scrubs at Greenwich market. She finished third in The Apprentice in 2011, but Lord Sugar saw her potential and handed the entrepreneur a £200,000 investment to help Tropic Skincare scale-up. It is believed that Ma is not worked around £73million.
