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Alan Sugar is a business speaker. He first went into business selling products such as cigarette lighters, intercoms and TV aerials. In 1968 he also founded the home electronics group Amstrad.
AMSTRAD:
1985 saw a major breakthrough with the launch of the PCW8256 word processor. Although it was made of very cheap components, it retailed at over three hundred pounds. At its peak Amstrad achieved a stock market valuation of 1.2 billion. However, the nineties proved a troubled time and in 1997 Amstrad divided into Betacom and Viglen.
Alan Sugar’s business empire was in 2005 estimated to be worth 700 million. He was also 25th on The Times Rich list. By 2022 it was 1.088 billion. This ranked him in166th place on the Rich List.
After 40 years with Amstrad, July 2008 saw Sir Alan step down as the companies chairman. He said it was a planned move following the company’s acquisition by Sky in 2007.
An interesting episode in Alan Sugar’s life was when he and Terry Venables got together to buy Tottenham Hotspur Football Club on June 21st 1991. They beat off a late bid from Robert Maxwell for Spurs.
In an interview with Channel 4’s High Interest programme, Alan 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 appeared… 20 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT TEL’S SUGAR DADDY.
THE APPRENTICE:
In 2005 Sir Alan Sugar as he was know then, entered the world of reality TV where he tested 14 apprentices in the BBC TV series based on Donald Trump’s successful US show The Apprentice. The winner Tim Campbell received a six figure salary and also became Project Director for Amstrad’s then new Internet based Health and Beauty Division with the first product ‘the Integra Face Care System’ launched.
The series became so popular further ones soon arrived, with one every year since, except for 2020 and 2021 which were put on hold due to Covid. Notable characters appeared from the contestants. These included Tim Campbell (winner series 1) and Michelle Dewberry (winner series 2). In series 3 we encountered the contestant Katie Hopkins who withdrew from the show just before the last episode. She went on to make a name for herself with her outspoken views and managed to appear on a number of tv shows. These included I’m a Celebrity, 8 Out of 10 Cats and Loose Woman. She was also hired by LBC to present a Sunday morning talk show.
Still ongoing, there have now been 16 series of The Apprentice.
Alan Sugar was knighted in the year 2000 and nine years later became Baron Sugar, of Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney. He took his seat in the House of Lords as The Right Honourable The Lord Sugar Kt.
Requests for Lord Sugar to appear and speak at corporate events has steadily increased. Lord Sugar is a busy man, so speaking engagements are selective. His time is spent between running his businesses, his Mayfair property portfolio and his executive private jet company. Then there’s also The Apprentice.
