E-m@iler heading into the black

SIR Alan Sugar is within sight of turning his last big gamble on consumer electronics into a winner.

Amstrad, controlled by the entrepreneur who brought the PC to millions of consumers, today said that e-m@iler, the low-priced web console, will move into the black in the current financial year.

His pledge came as the group returned to profits of £3.8m for the year to 30 June, against a loss of £1.8m last time. The turnaround was achieved despite a £6.1m loss at Amserve, the business that includes the email venture. Sir Alan slashed the device's retail price by half to less than £50 during the year but the number installed soared by 104,000 to 255,000.

Amstrad hopes to turn it profitable by selling more services as well as advertising on the device. It says there has been a marked increase in demand in recent months and emailer is clocking up revenues of £18,000 per day.