Apprentice boss Sugar to quit Amstrad

Sir Alan Sugar, the entrepreneur and star of the BBC reality TV show The Apprentice, has stepped down as chairman of Amstrad, the electronics firm he founded at the tender age of 21.

Though Sir Alan, now 61, said the move had been “planned for a while”, the self-made multi-millionaire is adamant he is not retiring. He will continue to be involved with his other businesses, including Amshold, Amsprop, Amsair and Viglen computers.

“It is the right time for me to step down from my role at Amstrad,” he said.

“The past 40 years have seen Amstrad grow from a start-up business to the success story that it is today, which is credit to the talented and loyal team here.”

Sir Alan, who is due back on television next year in the fifth series of the popular Apprentice show, left school at the age of 16 and founded Alan Michael Sugar Trading, or Amstrad, five years later.

After having listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1980, his company branched out from manufacturing PCs to become one of the major suppliers of set-top boxes to satellite television broadcaster BSkyB.

Amstrad was acquired by BSkyB last year in a surprise £125m deal, netting the entrepreneur a £34.5m windfall.

Sir Alan, who was ranked 92nd in the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List, now has a net worth of £830m, coming primarily from his property portfolio rather than business ventures.