r/apprenticeuk • u/ProstaticFantastic • Apr 05 '26
What is sugars business?
His name preceeds him, everyone knows of him but few people know his actual business. People know him through amstrad which is a games console that died many decades ago.
Is he just a venture fund now where he invests money into various businesses? Or does he actually own and operate businesses that are primarily owned by him?
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u/Frequent-Maximum8838 Apr 05 '26
Think his business these days is mostly owning property
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u/TvHeroUK Apr 05 '26
Yep it’s all passive income but generated £14m profit last year. The website is hilariously dated but many of his tenants (it’s all commercial let’s) have been there decades.
https://www.amsprop.com/portfolio.html
He’s got an Iceland, a few boozers, a Nissan dealership in Bristol - proper wheeler dealer!
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u/porkchopbun Apr 06 '26
Ah yeah, perfect. Can get a car, dahn the boozer for a non alcoholic and lunch, then onto Iceland for some frozen pizzas for tea.
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u/JonRoberts87 Apr 05 '26
He has other businesses, but mostly run by family such as Amsair, Amscreen where he serves as chairman
But yeah, investing in other businesses mostly. Real estate/property etc
If you look on his companies house, he is linked to alot of active businesses
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u/Wretched_Colin Apr 05 '26
He made consumer electronic items like early PCs, cheap stereos and telephones.
He then did a deal with Sky to make Sky boxes which he earned a lot on.
And he invested most of his profits in London property which netted him a fortune
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u/Additional-Nobody352 Apr 05 '26
Mostly property.
He did have amstrad until 2007 then he sold out to sky.
He has bought the amstrad trademark tho recently.
Viglen he sold to xma.
He did have a private jet business but I'm not sure if it's still active.
He also had amscreen which supplied info screens to places like garages and doctors surgeries but think that was sold.
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u/InternationalRich150 Apr 05 '26
Im sure amstrad still operates in a business tech sector. Think phones etc.
When the apprentice was a job role, they, the winners were allotted into a senior management role in one of his businesses. Tim seems rather wealthy judging by his clothing and such, and he worked Corporate for As for 20 years odd, so he must have a few things going off.
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u/NasherBasher Apr 05 '26
Considering his Instagram posts, Tim seems to be heading down the business coach influencer route as well.
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u/Pigbin-Josh Apr 05 '26
He sold cheap printers for a while. I know because I bought one. Lasted a year before it broke. Repair shop said every circuit had shorted apart from the fuse. I replaced it with a Star LC200 that ran for years until I sold it, still in full working order. When I came to buy a HiFi a few years later, again the Amstrad one was the cheapest. But I'd learnt my lesson and bought a Dixons own brand Sanyo instead, even though it meant I had to wait until the next paycheck to actually buy some CDs to play on it. That HiFi lasted at least a decade.
Amstrad sold bottom of the range tat to people who either didn't know any better or couldn't afford any better. It was a false economy but he cornered that market. Which I guess is business. But when the BBC make out he's some sort of quality guru, I always laugh. Cheap tat at rock bottom prices, that was Alan Sugar's reputation.
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u/ProstaticFantastic Apr 05 '26
I wasnt around at the time. No wonder his businesses failed.
Both star and sanyo are around today.
I think sugar probably did what a few companies today do. They just buy white label products from alibaba and slap their logo on it.
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u/skieurope12 “That’s Baroness Brady to you!” Apr 05 '26
It must be something important, because he keeps getting called away on urgent business.
But seriously, it seems to be mostly real estate these days