The winner of The Apprentice 2015 wasn’t looking for a job with Alan Sugar — he’s already a successful businessman with a fast-growing plumbing business in Peterborough.

Joseph Valente founded Impra Gas to provide service, maintenance and installation of all plumbing, heating and electrical products to property management companies, landlords and private homeowners in the Peterborough area.

2015 Apprentice winner Joseph Valente with one of his new Volkswagen Transporter vans.

Lord Sugar’s investment will be used to help the firm increase the geographic coverage of its operations and target new business relationships with property developers and other plumbing users.

To help support the expansion of Impra Gas, Valente has used some of Lord Sugar’s funds to acquire four new Volkswagen vans for his engineers. The new vehicles – Transporter T28 Trendline models with a 2.0-litre 102 PS engine have been fitted with Bott Vario in-vehicle storage equipment to ensure they are fit for purpose.

The new vans have been fitted with Bott Vario racking to provide safe and efficient in-vehicle storage.

Valente, who started in the plumbing industry as an apprentice himself, commented:

“Winning The Apprenticewas a dream come true for me. Having already established my business, the £250,000 investment, as well as the counsel from Lord Sugar himself, have enabled me to grow it further and I am really excited about the next chapter for Impra Gas.”

As well as supporting his traditional plumbing and heating services, Impra Gas will also be championing smart heating and home technologies, partnering with the industry’s most innovative technology providers as soon as they come to market.