RESULTS FOR 2008
Ranking: 92=
Worth: £830m
Source of wealth: Consumer electronics and property
With his catchphrase “You’re fired!” ringing out again in homes around the
country on Wednesday evenings, Sugar, 61, has good reason to be grateful to
The Apprentice. The business talent show, now in its third year, has made
Sugar a television star but it is the electronics firm Amstrad that made him
rich.
Founded in 1968, Amstrad took advantage of the rise of the home computer,
achieving a stock market value of £1.1 billion at its peak in the late
1980s. Its success has helped keep Sugar in the Rich List for all 20
editions. On his debut in 1989, his £432m fortune made him the UK’s 15th
richest person.
More recently, Amstrad’s main income has come from making set-top boxes for
televisions. When the business was sold last summer to BSkyB for £125m,
Sugar received about £36m for his stake and remains its chairman.
All very different to his origins in London’s East End, although he did show
an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age.
While still at school he boiled beetroot for the local greengrocer and sold
homemade ginger beer. Soon he was earning more than his father, a tailor. He
left school at 16 and began by selling car aerials from a van. The
pugnacious entrepreneur mixed business with pleasure when he became chairman
of Tottenham Hotspur in 1991. It was not a winning combination.
He described his decade at the helm, during which the club got through five
managers, as “a waste of my time” and condemned football players generally
as “total scum”, most of whom would be in prison were it not for the sport.
In addition to the proceeds of the Amstrad sale, Sugar should have received
about £25m for his remaining Spurs shares, sold last year. He still has a
£107m stake in technology manufacturer Viglen and £520m of property via his
Amshold company, which showed an £8.6m profit in 2005-06 and had £217m net
assets. In addition, about £150m of cash and other assets keep him at £830m.
Sugar, who lives in Essex, gives generously to charity, including Great Ormond
Street children’s hospital and Jewish Care.
RESULTS FOR 2007
Ranking: 84=
Worth: £830m
Source of wealth: Consumer electronics and property
