Born 24th March 1947, in Hackney, East London is the savvy investor and telly personality, Alan Sugar. Sugar is a business tycoon, media personality, author and politician. His full name is Lord Alan Michael Sugar. He went to Northwold Primary School and furthered at Brooke House Secondary School. Alan worked as a greengrocer just to earn extra cash for the Sugar family before dropping out of school, at 16, to hustle. He worked as a statistician at the Ministry of Education and also sold car aerials and electrical goods out of a van which he had bought with his savings for £50.
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How did Sugar make his money? What did Alan Sugar do?
At 21, Alan Sugar went into business. He set up his first company, Amstrad. He got the name from his initials Alan Michael Sugar Trading. The company started as a general importer/exporter and wholesale venture selling hi-fi turntable covers, car radios, aerials and other electrical items. In 1980 he was listed in the London stock market. In 1984, he went into PCs and that was what brought him out in the business world because, by 1986, he was worth £1.2 billion.
The 1990s were very difficult for the company because Seagate (a business partner) supplied poor hard disks, owing to the crash of the stock market in 1987 and stiff competition from Nintendo and Sega, the company lost big time. In 2007, Sugar sold Armstrad to BSkyB for £125 million.
Alan Sugar, in 1991, partnered with Terry Venables and bought Tottenham Hotspur FC. He was Chairman of the club for a decade. He later sold his entire 39% stake for £47 million to leisure group ENIC ending his 16-year stay at the club.
Alan had also been into other series of business ventures. He owns Amscreen, a digital Marketing outfit, and owns YouView, an FTA internet TV.
Lord Sugar is into real estate, he established Amsprop, a property investment firm of which his son, Daniel Sugar, is the MD. He also owns Amsair, an aviation corporation.
City University and Brunel University awarded him honorary Doctorates of Science each in 1988 and 2005 respectively.
Why is Alan Sugar a Lord?
I have heard people ask How is Alan Sugar a Lord? Here I will break down how he became a Lord.
In the year 2000, Sugar was made a knight in the 2000 New Year Honours “for services to the Home Computer and Electronics Industry”. He served as an ally of England.
In 2009, England titled him, Baron Sugar, of Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney and admitted him into the House of Lords hence making him Lord Alan Michael Sugar.
Who is Alan Sugar’s wife? His Children and Grandchildren
Lord Sugar married Ann Simon on 28 April 1968. They have three children, Simon, Daniel and Louise Sugar. They also have seven grandchildren.
How old is Lord Alan Sugar?
Lord Alan was born on 24th March 1947. As of this year, 2024, he is 77 years old.
Lord Sugar TV Show: The Apprentice
Lord Sugar was the main man of the BBC reality show, The Apprentice. Sugar was only known to businessmen until this reality show brought him out to the spotlight. The Apprentice started in 2005. In this TV show, he sacks a candidate every week until a winner emerges. The winner is then hired to work for him. In 2011, he changed the reward to a £250,000 investment capital for the winner to start a business.
Alan Sugar’s Net worth
Lord Sugar is worth £1.4 billion, the 121st of the 171 billionaires in the UK. He made most of his fortune from his business ventures. Amstrad is the biggest of it all. He owns two multi-million pounds houses in Chigwell, Spain and Boca Ratoon, Florida.
Lord Sugar has one of the best watch collections. He wears expensive wristwatches to The Apprentice. People even ask “What kind of watch does Lord Sugar wear?“, “What watch is Lord Sugar wearing tonight?” For this TV show, we have sighted him with; Yellow Gold Rolex Yacht-Master II Ref 116688, White Gold Rolex GMT-Master II Ref 116759, Stainless Steel Large Calibre De Cartier Ref W7100037, Yellow Gold Rolex Submariner Ref 116618LB, Breitling Superocean Ref A3732024.B869, Breitling Navitimer 01 Automatic Chronograph Ref AB012012.BB01 just to mention a few.
Alan is a philanthropist, his income from The Apprentice goes to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
He has two private jets and a fleet of luxury cars namely; Bentley, Ferrari, Rolls Royce Phantom and a Land Rover.
How is Rita Simons related to Alan Sugar?
Lord Alan is not directly related to Rita Simons. Ann is Rita Simon’s aunt. Rita is an EastEnders star whose garden was hit by a storm.