By Steve Ranger, 11 May 2006 13:25
NEWS
The winner of Sir Alan Sugar's The Apprentice business talent TV show will be given the responsibility of setting up a PC recycling business for Amstrad.
Michelle Dewberry, the 26-year-old telecoms consultant from Hull, will head up Sugar's Xenon Green company - a new business that will dispose of companies' unwanted computer equipment in an environmentally friendly fashion.
Dewberry will mastermind the business from launch through to marketing.
Before appearing in The Apprentice, Dewberry worked for a telecoms provider in its business transformation division, scoping and managing the move of its technology division from the UK to an offshore facility in India.
Sugar told The Daily Telegraph: "With all these new European rules, huge companies and organisations like schools, universities and government bodies can't just chuck out old computers. They have to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.
"We will charge the customer for taking them away, then disassemble them. It is going to be a kind of greenfield business and Michelle is going to mastermind the thing.
"We are going to turn it into a very, very big business."
Comments
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1. anonymous
This kind of decision clearly references the reason for the demise of AMSTRAD. The IT Recycling business is one of the most saturated and competitive markets in the hardware lifecycle and is plagued by restricitve legislation from both UK and EU.
I would be interested to know how AMS intends to make this a "very, very big business" - starting from zero in a mature and saturated specialist market is not an ideal business plan.
2. anonymous
Recycling computers has been going on for some time.
That said if Michelle can find some way of marketing this service better it's certainly something that would work well.
Jim
3. anonymous
Great business model.
Hire an expert at outsourcing jobs abroad.
Then get them to make money from re-cycling the PCs they've left behind.
The man's a genius.
4. anonymous
To those who say 'how can you grab a big share of the market when you're new to it and it's already saturated', d'oh! You buy up some of the existing players and then use your new collective clout to put the rest out of business. Sugar has the money to do it.
Otherwise I agree, she's screwed!