Delegates to the firm's annual management conference took on a team-building cookery challenge to raise money for Action for ME.

The 80-strong delegation of senior executives were told to swap their office wear for cookery smocks, and took on the task of baking trays of cakes at the conference centre in West Bay Road, Southampton.

The Apprentice-style challenge had been expected to raise up to £2,000 – but organisers did not count on the competitive spirit of these bosses-cum-bakers.

Marion Luckhurst, VT's supply chain director, said: 'It was like a cross between The Apprentice and Dragons' Den.

'Half the team were baking, and the other half were wrapping them and preparing them to sell to the public.

'But what happened is typical of when you get a bunch of senior execs together. Someone thought, ''there must be a better way to do it.'' They contacted some key suppliers and asked if they would be willing to buy some for charity.

'Then everyone cottoned on and started calling their contacts. It all became a bit competitive and bizarre.'

The record was clinched by one enterprising baker who sold a single cup cake for £5,000.

The company has now collected the takings and presented them to Action for ME. The cash will be used to fund a telephone hotline run by the charity.

The charity's chairman George Armstrong said: 'We are grateful that VT has adopted us as one of its nominated charities and we thought the bake-a-cake exercise would add a few hundred pounds to the totals. But to achieve the results they did was amazing.'