Everything you need to know about Turner's Pies - the West Sussex bakery whose owner is competing on The Apprentice

Dating back to 1933, the bakery has a long history in West Sussex, one the company continues to respect: baking fresh pies every day from scratch.

Eva and Reginald Turner, the couple who started the business, made and sold their first ever pie out of the well-known Commercial Hotel in Bognor Regis. Over time, they built up a reputation for quality pies – with Mrs Turner’s Steak and Ale a particular favourite – and, by 1966, their three children, Terence, Elizabeth and Pip, started to learn the catering trade.

Then, in 1985, Pip and his wife Margaret started making their pies from home, selling them to local butchers and delicatessens. Building on their parent’s well-established reputation for quality, it wasn’t long before demand was high and, by 1990, they opened their first ever shop on Hawthorn Road, in Bognor Regis.

Philip took over the business in 2009. Brought up around and passionate about pies, he and his older brothers took the business to new heights. By 2013, the family’s pies were named in the Guild of Fine Food’s top 50 foods in the United Kingdom, and used to stock Harrods of London’s world famous food halls. A second pie shop opened in Rustington the following year, a third in Chichester in 2017, and a fourth in Worthing in 2018.

Soon after that, the company launched a Pies by Post service to send pies all over the country, and they were featured in the BBC One documentary Life of Pies, all before being named Supreme Champion of pies for their Rump Steak and Stilton Pie in 2020.

Buoyed by all that success, the West Sussex business continues to grow, and, last year, opened its first ever bakery in Petersfield, Hampshire

When he appears on the BBC One reality tv show, Philip will be looking to build on that success even further and winning the grand prize of a 50/50 partnership with Lord Alan Sugar and a £250,000 investment. The Apprentice will air on BBC One and iPlayer from February 1 at 9pm.