A Retail Titan from WatchPro’s Hot 100 is among this year’s contestants on the BBC’s The Apprentice, which begins on October 4.
Charles Burns is described on The Apprentice website as having his fingers in many business pies, including a management consultancy, a watch trading company and a comparison website.
On his own Linkedin profile, Mr Burns is listed as: BBC Apprentice Candidate 2017, management consultant, luxury watch trader, entrepreneur and public speaker.
Charles Burns Watches and Jewellery Ltd was incorporated on February 8, this year, with Charles Burns and his wife Alyx listed as directors.
WatchPro readers may be more familiar with him as head of branded jewellery and watches at the family-owned Burns Jewellers.
In 2014, Mr Burns told WatchPro that the company’s focus was to dramatically increase online sales.
In a statement worthy of an Apprentice contestant, he said at the time: “I brought together a team of experts to drive my online business forward. The team are all self- starters who are incredibly passionate with a purpose to fulfil my vision of a 10x increase in online revenue to over £1.5m by 2017.”
“That will contribute to total revenue of £12.5 million from 16 stores,” he predicted.
Burns Jewellers currently has seven stores in the North East of England and an ecommerce business selling watch brands including Seiko, Casio, Frederique Constant and Rotary.
