The Apprentice boss Sir Alan Sugar has announced that he is to step down as boss of Amstrad.

The company was sold to BSkyB in 2007 and the famous entrepreneur now intends to focus on his other business interests, which include Viglen Computers, Amshold, Amsprop and Amsair.

"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," he said.

"This is a move that has been planned for a while and it's the right time for me to step down from my role at Amstrad."

Sugar is estimated to be worth in the region of £830m.