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Sir Alan Michael Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is an English businessman. He has an estimated fortune of around £800 million and was ranked 71st in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006.
In 2005 he starred the BBC TV series, The Apprentice, modelled after the American television show of the same name, featuring entrepreneur Donald Trump, which had already proven popular in the USA.
He was knighted in 2000 for his contributions to business. He is a donor to the British Labour Party despite having primarily risen to fortune during the Margaret Thatcher era.
Background
Sugar was born in Hackney in London's East end. After leaving school, he started selling vegetables out of a van he had bought with his savings of £100.
Amstrad
In 1968 Sugar founded the electronics and computer company Amstrad (taken from his initials – Alan Michael Sugar Trading).
By 1970 the first manufacturing venture was away. He achieved lower production prices by using the injection moulding plastics for hi-fi turntable covers, severely undercutting competitors who used the vacuum forming process. Manufacturing capacity was soon expanded to include the production of audio amplifiers and tuners. In 1980 Amstrad was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Amstrad as a company doubled in both profit and market value every year throughout the 1980s. By 1984, realising the oncoming opportunity of the computing era, Amstrad launched an 8-bit machine Amstrad CPC 464.
Although the CPC range were colourful machines, with CP/M-capability and a good BASIC operating system, it had to compete with its archrivals the more graphically complex Commodore 64 and the popular Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Despite this, three million were sold worldwide with a long production life of eight years, even inspiring an East German version with Russian z80 processors. In 1985, Sugar had another major breakthrough with the launch of the Amstrad PCW 8256 word processor which, although made of very cheap components, retailed at over £300. In the same year Amstrad brought the rights to the ZX Spectrum and produced two more models in a similar style to their own CPC machines. It also developed the Amstrad PC 1512, a PC clone, that became quite popular in Europe.
At its peak, Amstrad achieved a stock market value of £1.25 billion, but the 1990s proved a troubling time. The launch of a range of business PCs was marred by unreliable hard disks, supplied by Seagate, causing a very high number of customer returns. This caused great damage to Amstrad's reputation in that market, from which it never quite recovered. Some years later, Amstrad sued Seagate to the tune of $100 million for the lost revenue. In the early-1990s Amstrad began to focus on portable computers rather than desktop computers. In 1990 Amstrad tried to enter the gaming market with the Amstrad GX4000, but it was a commercial failure, because it used 8-bit technology unlike the 16-bit Sega Megadrive and Super Nintendo. In 1993 Amstrad released the PenPad, a PDA, also a commercial failure. Amstrad was the only manufacturer producing receiver boxes and dishes at the launch of Sky, and has continued to manufacture set top boxes, including Sky's Sky+ box.
In 1997 Amstrad bought into Betacom and Viglen, as the company decided to focus more on communications as opposed to computers. Amstrad released the first of its combined telephony and e-mail devices, called the e-m@iler, followed by the e-m@ilerplus in 2002.
Sugar currently has a 28% share in Amstrad.
Amsair
Sugar also controls Amsair Executive Aviation, founded in 1993 and run by his son, Daniel Sugar. As with Amstrad, Amsair's name is taken from his initials: Alan Michael Sugar Air. Amsair is a British private aircraft charter company that provides business jet and executive jet charters. Amsair operates the UK's largest fleet of Cessna Citation jets, as well as the Embraer Legacy. Through its strategic alliances, including that with Blue Star Jets, the world's largest broker of private aircraft, Amsair has access to over 5000 aircraft of all sizes.
Tottenham Hotspur FC
Sugar was once the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur F.C.. He and Terry Venables got together to buy Tottenham Hotspur Football Club on 21 June 1991. The pair beat off a late bid from Robert Maxwell for Spurs. In an interview with Channel 4's High Interest programme, Sugar said:
"The only dialogue I had with Rupert Murdoch was when that clown Maxwell came on the scene and knowing that they were in the past arch enemies I think Rupert rang me up one day and said 'what's going on with this football club you're trying to buy and this clown Maxwell is trying to buy also', and I think I might have said to him at the time 'he's got the power of his newspaper to hype up the thing, I haven't got a newspaper so perhaps one of your journalists could put in a good word for me on The Sun, but that was about it"
A Sun headline once read: "20 things you never knew about Tel's Sugar Daddy", which played on Sugar's financial contributions to Spurs – paying off their £20 million debt and placing limits on players' wages and other expenses – effectively saving the club from administration. However, Sugar's relationship with Venables turned acrimonious and court battles ensued. Sugar has stated that his time at Spurs was "a waste of my life".
Sugar sold most of his share in 2001, after several death threats towards him and his family. He sold the shares to ENIC Sports Ltd, represented by Daniel Levy – effectively the current chairman of the club. Sugar currently has a 13% share of Spurs, making him the second-largest shareholder.
Despite owning a football club, he once compared football players to thugs and suggested that if they weren't playing professional football, most of them would be imprisoned and notably threw Jurgen Klinsmann's shirt away in a TV interview when the German striker refused to take up an option to stay with the club for a second season.
The Apprentice
| The Apprentice UK |
| The Boss and his candidates |
| Hired: Michelle Dewberry |
| Hired: Timothy Campbell |
In 2005, Sugar became the star of the BBC reality show The Apprentice, in which he had the job of the boss, as Donald Trump had previously done in the US version. This meant that he dealt with every "firing" of a certain candidate each week. Every week, just the same as Donald Trump, he would eliminate one contestant by telling them "You're fired", which became a popular catchphrase in both the US and the UK. He also chose the tasks for the teams, using his leads in the business world to get them tasks in places such as Harrods and Sugar's company, Amstrad. He also chose the rewards the winning team received each week, which included dinner with Sugar, a trip to Monaco and a trip on the Orient Express. He decided to continue his role in the second series of The Apprentice, which was broadcast on BBC2 on Wednesdays at 9pm. The second series began in February 2006, and featured some new tasks. His second apprentice was chosen to be Michelle Dewberry - over Ruth Badger - after they competed in a final task which took place on London's Tower Bridge. He is also scheduled to appear in a third series of The Apprentice in 2007, on the conditions that the programme be more business orientated, rather than entertaining, and that he be portrayed in a less harsh light.
Other TV
Sugar's increase in popularity has lead to him appearing in several television shows, including a special celebrity edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. In 2005/6 he became the face of Premium Bonds on British television advertisements, donating his fee for the adverts to Great Ormond Street childrens hospital. He has appeared on Room 101 in 2005, where he got rid of American English, men who wear wigs, call centres, schmooze and adverts that do not mention what is being sold. He has also on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in April 2006.
Further reading
- David Thomas, "Alan Sugar - the Amstrad Story" (1991), paperback ISBN 0330319000.
- Alan Sugar, "The Apprentice: How to get hired not fired"
External links
- Amstrad website
- Amsair website
- BBC's The Apprentice
- BBC Profile
- Tottenham Hotspur FC official site
- Tiscali Encyclopedia entry for Alan Sugar
- In the line of fire, The Sunday Times (Magazine), March 26, 2006
English entrepreneurs | English football chairmen and investors | The Apprentice | 1947 births | Knights Bachelor | English Jews | Living people | Businesspeople | Londoners
"Alan Sugar"