SUGAR, SIR ALAN

SUGAR, SIR ALAN (1947– ), British businessman. Born in north London, the son of an East End tailor, Sugar left school at 16 and founded the Armstrad Home Electronics group in 1968. It became nationally known in 1983 when it sold the first inexpensive home computer, retailing at the time at £300. In the 1980s Armtrad was regarded as a serious competitor for other major international computer firms like Apple, but in the 1990s the firm ran into difficulties, and in 1997 it was divided into two separate concerns, Betacom and Viglen. In the early 1990s Sugar became the chief owner of the Tottenham Hotspur football club. Known for his aggressive style, Sugar was given a knighthood in 1999. In 2005 he became host of a popular BBC television series, U.K. Apprentice. In 2005 he was estimated to have been the 55th richest man in Britain, worth £760 million. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)