Press Release

Business guru Sir Alan Sugar goes back to his roots to support new London talent - 29th September 2005

On Thursday 29 September Sir Alan Sugar opened a new business incubation centre run by the charity London Youth Support Trust (LYST) in Mare St Hackney. The centre has been built to offer assistance to disadvantaged young people who want to set up and run their own businesses.

Sir Alan Sugar is originally from Hackney and felt at home on his former “manor”, and recalled how difficult it was for him starting business from his family flat near by. He commended how LYST integrate the businesses from the incubators to the outside world. Indeed Harry Platt CEO of Workspace Group PLC highlighted the success of such businesses including Key One LTD, a software solutions company who have benefited from the help of LYST.

LYST currently provides subsidised workspace and business advice to over 50 businesses in some of the most deprived areas of London. A principle donor to the charity, The London Development Agency (LDA), the Mayor's agency for business and jobs, describes LYST’s work as a “unique approach to provide workspace for the hard-to-reach-groups”¹.

The Hackney centre has been converted, with the help of Workspace Plc and is now purpose-built for the LYST's business incubation service. Tenants include a range of different businesses including graphic, fashion and  jewellery designers, dance teachers and card makers.

1 Development of Business Priorities for Women’s Enterprise in London Consultation Report Business Premises August 05, London Development Agency.

-End-

Notes to Editors

Contact:  Rachel Rickards
Telephone:  07717 511162
Email: Rachel@lyst.biz

LYST aims to maximise the business and personal potential of young disadvantaged entrepreneurs by providing business incubation services. LYST was established in 2001 starting in Deptford where it currently helps 26 businesses and the second centre is in Hackney. It is funded by the LDA, the Rank Foundation, Miller Insurance Services Group, the Byrne Foundation and other private donors.

Workspace Group Plc is the leading provider of affordable accommodation for rent on flexible terms to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in London and the South East of England. We manage our properties ourselves, providing levels of customer service that can help our customers focus on their own businesses and provide them the opportunity to grow and expand.
 
2005 is Workspaces 18th year in business and it currently has:

• Over 100 properties
• 90% of properties within the M25
• 4,000 customers
• Office, studio, light industrial, storage and retail space

The London Development Agency: the Mayor's agency for business and jobs
The LDA prepares the Mayor's business plan for London and mobilises the support and resources of hundreds of partner organizations to help build a thriving economy for London's people, businesses and communities. The LDA is dedicated to improving sustainability, health and equality of opportunity for Londoners. The LDA invests more than £300 million a year to support the growth of new and existing businesses, the creation of new jobs, and the development of new communities. It works to promote and grow London's strengths as the world's leading financial centre, its most vibrant cultural centre, an outstanding centre for higher education and research, and the busiest global transport hub. The LDA delivers long-term strategies to tackle structural failures in London's economy, where widespread prosperity exists alongside the highest concentration of unemployment and child poverty in the UK. The LDA focuses its investment on areas of greatest need and greatest potential, so that all Londoners can gain from, and contribute to, London's international competitive success.

The Rank Foundation is a grant giving charitable trust, restricted to causes within the UK approved by the Charity Commission.

It concentrates exclusively on :  

• encouraging and developing leadership amongst young people
• supporting disadvantaged young people and those frail or lonely through old age or disability 
• the promotion of Christian principles through film and other media

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