Paula was fired for a massive mistake over her costs as Empire made a second loss in the series.
But Ignite's win was thoroughly unconvincing as all of the candidates still struggle to shine.
For the first time, Sir Alan named the team leaders himself. Noorul was appointed to Ignite and Paula to Empire.
He shuffled the teams again so that Paula, Yasmina and Debra worked with Ben, James and Kate in Empire.
Howard and Kimberly moved across to work with Noorul, Lorraine, Mona and Philip as Ignite.
Requested to meet Sir Alan at Kew Gardens, both teams were asked to create and produce an original natural body-care product.
They would then need to sell it on the streets of London.
Not for first time in the series, both teams had pretty much the same idea and produced soap bars with Ignite also selling bubblebath.
Noorul was quiet as team leader in the ideas stage of choosing their natural product.
After much deliberation, they eventually chose honey for their soap, which they branded as “Honey I’m Home”.
Ignite were also confused by how much honey which they would actually need and later by the lack of a batch number.
And Philip got particularly upset by the batch number issue, proceeding to act like a spoilt teenager (or “a dickhead”, according to Lorraine) for much of the rest of the show.
Sir Alan’s aide Margaret Mountford said: “I think Noorul has been a very poor manager of this team. They have been in a muddle right from the very outset.
“If it was left to Noorul, they would not have done anything.”
But none of these mistakes was as bad as the one made by the Empire team.
HR manager Paula had delegated responsibility for costing to Ben and Yasmina but she stayed with them in the factory as the others set out for their natural element, seaweed, for their product “Rockpoole”.
Indeed, while Ben took a backseat by working on the production side, Paula was very much involved in the costing side with Yasmina.
But between the two of them, they confused cedarwood oil for the much more expensive sandalwood oil.
And they compounded their error by misreading the formula by buying in 450g of it, as Sir Alan’s aide Nick Hewer helpfully pointed out a little later.
Over at Ignite, though, there were still problems.
They struggled throughout selling their less quality product for £5 a set at Camden Lock and on Carnaby Street. Noorul, in particular, failed to sell at all.
Then, after deciding to leave Carnaby Street, he got lost in trying to find Bond Street underground station which had only just been vacated by Empire because of numerous turn-downs by busy commuters.
Empire had also chosen an inauspicious selling point – next to a hotdog van at Portobello Market.
But the Notting Hill locals were not put off by their higher prices. Then, late in the day, they made a deal with a vendor and sold their remaining stock for £400.
It was a case of being too little too late, though, after their costing disaster – and the show produced yet another clear result.
Empire made £1073.20 but spent £1141.24 for a loss of £68.04 while Ignite made £900.85 and spent £406.88 to make a profit of £493.97.
Ignite were rewarded by attending a sushi and Saki evening at a top restaurant but Sir Alan criticised the low quality of their product and Howard later admitted that it had been a “frustrating win”.
Empire, meanwhile, were blasted for failing to heed Sir Alan’s warnings over cost.
He said: “I have been banging on for the last four weeks about costs. What the hell’s gone wrong?!”
Team leader Paula brought her costing partners in crime Ben and Yasmina back into the boardroom.
It was Ben’s second successive boardroom appearance and his third loss in the opening four weeks.
Sir Alan accused him of avoiding the work of being involved in the costing despite him being allocated that part of the task.
But he also blasted Paula’s excuse as an HR manager for delegating the task as “feeble”.
Yasmina, who was implicated alongside Paula for the oil mix-up, escaped most of the crossfire by loading the responsibility on the team leader.
And Ben, who promised to “rip [Paula] to shreds” in the boardroom, fought his corner in typically pugnacious style.
He said to Paula: “You did not just get it a little bit wrong. You got it very, very wrong.”
After deciding he wants to see Yasmina as a project manager again, Sir Alan agreed with Ben.
Sir Alan said: “I have decided that on balance, Paula, you were responsible for the fatal mistake. So, Paula, you’re fired.”
In the black cab, Paula said: “I just feel disappointed that I have gone so early in the competition.
“It was because of a mistake and everyone makes mistakes so there is absolutely no shame in that.”
Ben, even after his reprieve, still tried to talk himself into trouble, but – fortunately for him – Sir Alan resisted to fire for the second time.
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