TV Apprentice Philip Taylor failed to survive a boardroom showdown with Lord Alan Sugar, but his determination to succeed in business has secured him an exclusive deal with a major national retailer.

The young entrepreneur, from West Cornforth, in County Durham, starred in last year’s series of The Apprentice, where he met his future partner, Kate Walsh, who used the programme as a launchpad for her career as presenter of celebrity gossip show Live From Studio Five.

Mr Taylor’s bid to bag a job in TV fizzled out, and as Ms Walsh rubbed shoulders with Hollywood A-listers, he was forced to revert to his former job as an estate agent to support his London lifestyle.

A deal with Argos to sell his Body-Rocka portable training unit, that can be used for press-ups and ab crunches, is to put him back in the national spotlight.

“Hopefully, the business will take off and I will speed past Kate in a few years. Seeing her on TV interviewing the likes of Cameron Diaz and Matt Damon was a bit hard to take, but at the same time I was very proud of her.

“TV is a very fickle world.

Unless you land an amazing job like Kate has done, you can struggle to make an impact.

“Business and product design suit my skills, although I haven’t given up on doing more TV. Maybe I could bring some young blood to Dragons’ Den,” said the 31-year-old, who used engineering skills he learned at Darlington College of Technology to refine the fitness product that he showcased during one of the tasks on The Apprentice.

Of this year’s contestants, he dismissed this week’s loser, Liz Locke, as a bit too lightweight and he backed nononsense Stella English to win the final, adding: “She is like me, speaks her mind and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.”

His appearance on the programme earned him the nickname of Pants Man as one of his ideas to sell breakfast cereal to children was to create and advertise a superhero character who encouraged youngsters to follow his lead and wear pants on top of their trousers.

So, will Pants Man reappear to promote Body-Rocka?

“No, I’m not sure that is the image we are aiming for.

Pants Man became a bit of a cult figure and the nickname stuck, so I’m not complaining.”

Mr Taylor has spent the past 18 months setting up Rocka Fitness Ltd with the assistance of London-based entrepreneurs Russell Hardiman and Justin Barrington, who he met at a Damien Hirst art show.

He said: “Russell and Justin were in the gallery to buy, I was there to look, maybe one day I’ll be able to buy one of my own.”

A minimum of £25,000 from the sale of British-made Body-Rockas, which go on sale in Argos stores from Wednesday, will be paid to Cancer Research UK.

For further information, visit body-rocka.com or argos.co.uk